The Call of Atlantis
by agent000
Summary: On his sixteenth birthday, Edward makes a discovery about himself that will change his life forever: he is not human. Apparently, the Amestrian army had known all along, and are not too keen on having their little lab rat slip through their fingers.
1. Chapter 1

**_I'm so sorry that I started a new story! I've been trying so hard to resist the urge to start this one, and only update "The Demon Within" and "Teach Me to Fly", but it's begging to get out so hard that I can't even write those others while this one's trapped inside. Heh, sorry, I tried to keep it in, honestly! I'll update the others too though, I swear! I just need to get this one out so that I CAN!_**

Anyway, I'm sorry that this first chapter is so short. It's the only place that I could think of to end it. Leave me some reviews anyway, and I'll make sure to update soon. Heck, maybe even in LESS than a day's time, for the first time in my life, hehe. We'll see. This story idea is strong, even though I don't have all my ideas formulated yet, so I don't really know where it's going. As usual, suggestions are welcome. SakuraSagura already gave me a lot of suggestions, but I definitely need more! Heh.

Disclaimer: There's a funny little thing called the copyright law that makes it so that the first person who figures something out gets to keep it, whether it makes more sense for me to keep it or not. Since I wasn't the first one to figure out FullMetal Alchemist, I don't own the copyright, so sorry. I can't claim any ownership here.

Edward nearly tripped over himself several times as he hobbled out to the kitchen. Ignoring the concerned inquiries coming from Winry and Pinako, he grabbed himself a glass from the cupboard and began to fill it with water from the sink.

As the glass was filling up, Edward leaned against the sink as if it were a crutch and was panting like he had just run a marathon. Winry grew concerned and placed a hand on his forehead. "Edward, are you sick?"

Edward said nothing and simply lifted up the now full glass and emptied it into his mouth as fast as he could, only to quickly return it to the sink for another refill, all the while, still panting.

"You feel a little warm, Ed," said Winry, still pressing for his attention, "You should probably go to bed."

"I just...got out...of bed," said Ed between breaths, "I'm just...thirsty...is all." He stopped talking and lifted up his second glass of water to quickly devour it, and then returned it to the sink for a third glass.

Winry continued to look on with concern. She had never seen him this thirsty before. He had definitely never had to drink three glasses of water in a row upon awakening before, and she suspected that, considering his current breathing rate, that he wasn't done yet. "Ed, what's wrong? You've never been like this before!"

Ed just shook his head while downing yet another glass of water, and returned the glass to the sink for yet another refill. "I'm fine, Winry. I guess I just got really hot last night, so I'm thirsty. It's nothing to worry about."

The corners of Winry's mouth twitched like she was trying to decide whether to smile or not. He was forming complete sentences without having to gasp for breath now, so that was a good sign, but she was still quite concerned with the fact that he'd had to deal with that in the first place.

Ed finally finished with his huge serving of water, and put the glass in the sink for good. He brought his left arm up to his mouth and wiped the excess water off, and turned to walk out of the room. Winry grabbed him by his sleeve and wouldn't let him go so easily.

"Edward...what's the matter?" Winry hesitated for a moment, trying to collect her thoughts, and then asked, "Are you nervous about your upcoming birthday?"

Edward laughed. "Why should I be nervous? I had completely forgotten that I was turning sixteen until you'd mentioned it just now."

"True," said Winry, "But considering how restless you are...does it bother you that the Colonel made you take a leave of absence for a few weeks just to rest up?"

Edward shrugged. "I don't know...I like being with you guys and all, and I don't like being stuck in one place...but I don't think that that has anything to do with that." Winry nodded that she understood that he was referring to his extreme thirst just a few moments ago.

Winry again placed her hand on Edward's forehead. It had finally cooled down, so she breathed a sigh of relief. "Have you ever had anything like this happen to you before?"

Edward slowly shook his head. "...No...not that I can think of..."

"Are you sure?" Winry demanded of him, gripping his arm even tighter.

Ed pulled his arm out of her grasp and said, "Winry, I would never lie to you. That's the first time that has ever happened, so relax. I'm sure it's nothing."

Edward then turned and walked out of the room, leaving Winry behind to watch him leave. "I sure hope you're okay, Edward," she mumbled under her breath, "It's just that I've never seen anyone react that way before."

**_Sorry that I ended that so abruptly! I didn't know where else to end this first chapter! The next one should be up soon! Until then, please leave me some reviews, okay? Thanks a bunch!_**


	2. Chapter 2

**_Wow! What a response! Heh, I think that this one might be an instant hit, for some reason, hehe. I only uploaded the first chapter not an hour ago, and I already have three reviews? Unreal! Hehe...Well, I hope that I continue getting that kind of response for the whole story. ((Well, more of a response if there's a greater span of time between when the chapters are uploaded, but yeah, you get the idea, hehe.)) I just wanted to upload the second one quickly, so...here it is. Enjoy!_**

Um...this is some...sort of...disclaimer thingy...not sure what to do with it...but it's here.

Ed walked over into the living room and sat down in a chair that allowed him to look out the window. He felt a sense of longing as he gazed out the window, though he wasn't quite sure why, but something about the outdoors seemed really appealing to him right then. He would've jumped up and run outside right then if he weren't waiting for breakfast.

Ed sighed and slumped in his chair. There would be enough time to run around in the outdoors later, he supposed. With a yawn, he brought a hand up and unconsciously rubbed his chest, causing him to feel the small pendant through his shirt. He smiled. His mother had given him that necklace just before she had died, so he wore it everywhere he went. It was a little awkward though to have people see him clinging to a memory, so he always kept it hidden under his shirt.

He dropped his hand and leaned his head back, closing his eyes. A slight breeze blew in from the window, and he basked in the feeling. Ed felt the warmth rise up in his chest until he started humming a melody that always seemed to make him feel good whenever he'd hum it.

Al unexpectedly walked into the room right then. "What's that that you're singing, Brother?"

Ed jumped at the sudden intrusion, but relaxed when he realized who it was. "Oh hi, Al. I don't really know...it's just...some song I'm always singing."

Al smiled and sat down on a nearby couch. He knew that Ed seemed to always be singing behind people's backs, when he thought they weren't listening. Al knew better than to make a fuss about it, since his brother always seemed to be self-conscious about expressing emotions in such gentle ways as singing, but he did enjoy listening to Ed sing whenever he could catch him in the act.

Ed had stopped singing and was just staring out the window. Al was about to open his mouth and comment on this to try and get his brother to relax, but he was interrupted by Pinako calling both of the boys to the kitchen to get their breakfast. Defeated in his mission, Al just shrugged and stood up to head to the kitchen.

The rest of the day, Ed pretty much distanced himself from everyone else, and spent most of his time wandering the open countryside. He stayed out so late that Winry even had to pull the flashing the light from the balcony trick to make him come back home.

Finally, at the conclusion of the day, everyone reluctantly said their good nights and went to bed. Ed was still a bit tired from his episode that morning, so even though he fought to keep his eyes open to continue reading the book he had picked up, his eyelids eventually grew heavy and shut.

Upon awakening the next morning, he moved to sit up, only to be overcome with dizziness and be forced to fall back into his bed. This was incredibly frustrating. He pushed himself up to a sitting position with his arm, still quite dizzy. He swung his feet over the side of the bed, and slowly pushed himself up.

Ed felt incredibly wobbly and weak as he tried to place one foot in front of the other. He was incredibly thirsty again, and this time, the thirst was accompanied by a pounding head and a throbbing throat. He had to get out to the kitchen as soon as possible.

He was carefully making his way along by resting his hand against the wall as he concentrated on putting one foot in front of the other. Things would going alright until Winry suddenly looked up and noticed his unusual way of walking and asked him what was wrong.

That broke his concentration. He jerked his head up in her direction, only to be met with the sight of two Winrys swirling around in front of him. He knew that he was really sick, but he didn't have time to react, so he just called out, "Winry..." and fell to the floor.

"Ed!" Winry screamed and ran over to the fallen boy, who turned out to be even hotter to the touch than he was the day before, and was again panting heavily. He had probably been trying to get to the sink like he had done yesterday so that he could quench his incredible thirst.

Winry turned to face the concerned onlookers in the room and said, "Al, Granny, get him some water, quick, and lots of it!"

No one argued, not with that serious look on Winry's face. They quickly moved to do as she said, and soon had the requested water, which Winry proceeded to hold to Ed's mouth and help him drink it like a helpless child.

The water ran down Ed's cheeks and all over his chest as he tried very hard to swallow the water as fast as he could. He soon finished that glass, and Winry reached for another glass, and then another, and another. He finally was satisfied after he had drunk about seven glasses of water.

Winry then grabbed Ed by both of his shoulders and forced him to look at her. "Now, Ed, something is definitely wrong here. Tell me, what is going on?"

Ed just returned a blank stare at her for a moment, before he responded that he hadn't a clue, though he tried to play it down as not being a big deal. Winry wasn't fooled, however. She turned to Pinako and said, "Granny, call the doctor, we need someone to look at Ed."

Pinako nodded in response and headed straight for the telephone. Ed squirmed under Winry's grasp and objected. "I don't need a doctor, I'm fine, really! Let me go!" Winry just responded by tightening her grip on the squirming boy and casting a glance at her grandmother to confirm that she was indeed using the telephone. They were going to get to the bottom of this.

**_Okay, this chapter was written up kind of quickly, I know, but I hope it's still good. Leave me some reviews, and I'll update really, really, really soon, okay? Thanks a bunch!_**


	3. Chapter 3

**_Wow, that last chapter got even more response than the previous one! Heh, wow, I'm impressed, really! I never would've guessed that this would be such an intriguing subject to you all! Well, here's the next chapter. Hope you enjoy!_**

I'm still disclaiming something or other. I'm hoping that you all know what it is, because I've forgotten.

Edward grudgingly sat still as the doctor poked and prodded at him. He hated doctors, especially when he was sure that whatever was happening to him wasn't that big of a deal. He couldn't exactly escape, however, not with Al, Winry, and Pinako standing by, making sure that he didn't.

"Other than a mild case of dehydration, I don't see anything physically wrong with him," said the doctor, continuing to poke and prod at Edward, much to Edward's disapproval.

"But what causes the dehydration?" asked Winry, "He's been waking up extremely ill and dehydrated for the past two days! What...what if he gets worse?"

The doctor began putting his items back in his bag. "If he gets worse, call me again. Until then, there's nothing I can do, since I can't find anything wrong with him. Just make sure he gets lots of water." He picked up his bag. "I'm sorry, I wish there was more I could do."

Winry sighed as the doctor walked out the door. Edward slumped back into his chair, and muttered, "I told you there was nothing wrong with me."

Winry snapped her head in Edward's direction and practically screamed, "Edward, will you cut that tough act? We both know just how sick you were this morning. There is definitely something the matter, but the doctor just doesn't know where to look. We're going to find out what's wrong though, you can count on it!" With that said, she turned and stomped out of the room, leaving a very dumbfounded Edward behind, wondering what he had said to make her so upset.

The next few days weren't any better. Edward just continued to get worse each passing day, until he couldn't even get out of bed in the morning, and had to have someone bring him water before he could so much as sit up.

Unfortunately, the doctor still couldn't find the cause, and could not do anything for Edward. The only conclusion he had been able to draw, which he refused to say in Edward's presence, was that Edward was dying, and fast. In fact, he probably only had a few days left to live if they couldn't find a cure fast, which the chances of that were slim.

While that news was quite disconcerting, Winry and the others refused to give up on their friend. She continued to bring him water each morning, in hopes that he would soon recover.

One morning, when she brought in his morning water, Edward opened his eyes and looked up at her. "Winry," he said in a raspy voice, "...Am I going to die?"

Winry jumped involuntarily at the question, but refused to answer. She simply placed a wet wash rag on Edward's forehead and handed him a glass of water, telling him to drink, which he listened willingly to.

"Edward," she said, "Your birthday is tomorrow...do you want anyone to come over, or would you just like to have a private celebration?"

Edward lay back down on his bed and sighed. "Private. I don't want anyone else seeing me like this." Winry nodded, and picked Ed back up, so that he could continue drinking the water he needed.

Finally, he was satisfied, so he thanked Winry and stood up and stretched his arms. He wobbled a bit while trying to stand, though he tried not to let Winry notice it. Naturally, she did, but she didn't say anything. She just stood up, patted Ed on the shoulder, and left the room.

Outside the room, Al and Pinako were waiting for her. "So, how is Brother doing?" asked Al.

Winry shook her head. "Not good at all." A tear slipped down her cheek. "I'm afraid that he doesn't have long to live." She put her hands over her face and began sobbing. Al and Pinako grew worried that Ed would hear the sobs, so they quietly guided her away into another part of the house.

The rest of the day followed with birthday preparations and everyone attempting to smile for Ed, though it was hard at times to not reveal the concern in their heart on their faces, but he didn't seem to notice.

The big day finally arrived. Winry revived him in the morning with all the water he needed, which was more than ever, since he'd been needing more water each passing day. He thanked her and pushed himself to his feet, and then hobbled out the door.

Everyone greeted him upon coming down the stairs and immediately began piling birthday presents and cake upon him. It was almost overwhelming, but he was touched by how much these people that he loved cared about him.

Winry lit the candles on the cake, sixteen to be exact, and brought it before Ed. "Now, Brother," Al piped in, "Make a wish and blow out the candles!"

Ed rolled his eyes and scoffed. "That's kid stuff."

"Aw, come on, Ed," whined Winry, "Just play along."

He chuckled. "Fine!" _I wish that I could stop being a burden to these people that I love. _He took a deep breath, and blew out the candles, making Winry and Al cheer.

"What did you wish for, Brother?"

Ed rolled his eyes. "If I told you, it wouldn't come true."

Al crossed his arms in a mock-pouting position and said, "Fine, be that way!" He then laughed and started shoving presents at Ed, making him tear them open.

After a few minutes, Ed had opened all the presents, and was thanking those involved for their kindness. He then stood up and yawned. "Do you guys mind if I go out for a walk?"

Winry shook her head. "Not at all. This is your day, Ed. You go and enjoy it how you like. We'll clean up here." She flashed him a smile, making him return it.

"Okay...thanks," he said, "I'll be back soon."

Ed was just casually walking along, just enjoying the feeling of the sun and the breeze upon him, when he chanced to look up and see the lake not far off. He smiled. It would feel good to go take a dip in the lake after all he had had to deal with for the past few days. He began walking in its general direction.

He wasn't even halfway to the lake when he suddenly got an intense pain in his chest, bringing him to his knees. What was this? What was wrong with him? Should he head back? No, something was telling him that he should continue on. He picked up his pace and continued heading towards the lake.

As he was moving, the pain got increasingly worse in his chest, and he began panting rapidly, along with having a severe headache. He couldn't believe the symptoms were showing up at a time other than the morning. What was going on? He broke into a run and continued heading for the lake.

When he was only a few minutes away from the lake, still panting, something finally clicked in his brain. He was dying. He didn't have long to live. The dehydration feeling was creeping up on him. If he could just get to the lake, he might survive. Maybe. He just had to make it.

To try and save some time, Ed began tearing off his clothes and throwing them to the ground as he continued running. He wouldn't have time to tear them off later. _I'm not going to make it,_ he thought. He began running at the fastest speed he could muster, in order to beat death to the waters of life.

He finally made it to the dock, which he ran across with top speed and made a head dive into the water. Almost as soon as the water touched him, pain seized his entire body, and he wasn't able to force his body into submission to allow him to return to the surface for air. Was he going to die? Here? Now? What about Al, and Winry, and Auntie Pinako? They were expecting him to be home soon.

He wanted to cry at that moment, but couldn't, not with him being trapped under the water by his own body. He turned his face upward and watched the sun's rays being filtered through the water's surface. So, this was it? He was going to die? He supposed that it was coming anyway, due to the fact that he kept waking up deathly dehydrated every morning...but he really didn't want to die and leave those he loved behind.

He closed his eyes. He wasn't going to look anymore. If this was his time to die, then he was just going to let it happen. It wasn't worth fighting, since there seemed to be nothing he could do about it. With that, he relaxed, and let the water consume him.

**_Hope you enjoyed that chapter. Leave me some reviews, okay? It helps me to know how much this story is liked. I'll try to update soon. I'm trying to get this story OUT of my head so that it quits bothering me, heh, so expect the chapters to come really close in succession until I either get tired or run out of inspiration, hehe. Most likely, I'll be hit with tiredness first though, since that's the most logical symptom of writing one chapter after another._**


	4. Chapter 4

**_I can't believe the kind of response I'm getting to this story considering how fast I'm uploading it! It's incredible! I guess that you people really like weird ideas, don't you? Heh...um...you guys wouldn't consider reviewing each chapter to give me a higher review rating, would you? Heh, just thought I'd ask, never hurts to ask, hehe. You can say "Blah" each time for all I care...It would just be cool to have a nice high review rating, though I realize that I technically don't need it, since I know my story's good...but...well, I can dream, can't I?_**

Still don't own. I'm too lazy to come up with anything creative. Besides, I need to go and make myself some ramen, or I won't have enough brainpower to continue writing this story tonight, so you can all have something to read upon awakening, hehe. Yep, ramen is brainfood.

After a few minutes, the incredible pain calmed down in Edward's body, and he was finally able to swim to the surface. His head popped out above the surface of the water, and he gulped in the air like it was the most wonderful thing in the world. How had he survived? He had been so sure he was going to die.

He shrugged at his own thoughts. No matter, as long as he was alive, nothing else was important. He thought that he should probably get himself out of the water though, so he made to swim over to the dock, but his legs seemed to still refuse to cooperate. He sighed and ducked beneath the water so that he could paddle over to the dock with just his arm power.

It had taken quite a bit of his energy to swim with just his arms, but he made it to the dock. Now, to just get himself up on it. He reached up and grabbed hold of it, and then, using all his strength, picked himself up and thrust himself on it.

Edward lay on the dock, panting for several minutes, just trying to get his breath back. He couldn't help but notice that that dehydration feeling was starting to surface again. This was getting really annoying. Surely he wasn't this weak, was he? He pushed himself up to a sitting position and looked out over the lake. It sure looked welcoming in the water. He kind of wanted to jump back into it, and he was starting to think that he probably should, due to the dehydration feeling taking over him.

He sighed and brought up a hand to wipe off the sweat forming on his forehead, and then he rested it in his lap, only to jerk his hand back in surprise. That had felt weird. He looked down to see what his hand had touched, and his face turned white. His legs appeared to have fused together into a greenish-silver mass that was covered with scales.

Edward hesitantly touched this new sight before him, and was quite shocked to find that not only could his hand feel the sensation, but that this...thing...was sending off sensory information as well...indicating that it was part of him.

He quickly ran his hand up his...legs...and soon found that the transformation had occurred from the waist down. He still appeared to be quite normal above that point, but his waist and legs had completely transformed.

Edward closed his eyes and tried to force back tears. He couldn't take this, not on his birthday especially. He turned his face upward and threw out his arms. "What is this? Is this some cruel joke?" he yelled to no one in particular.

He then put his face in his hands and started to sob. What kind of monster was he? "Mom," he mouthed, "Was I always like this? Are you even...my mother?" He reached to his chest to finger the pendant once again, but realized to his horror that it wasn't there. _It must be at the bottom of the lake! _ Without a second thought, he launched himself off the dock.

He wasn't quite sure how to control this strange new body of his, but he knew he had to find that necklace. He absolutely had to, no matter what. _Edward,_ he thought to himself, _If you don't have separate legs to work with, you're just going to have to work with what should be your legs as one._

It was quite awkward, but he soon figured out how to at least move in the water, though he wasn't very good at it. Strangely, he had forgotten to take a deep breath before going under the water, but he didn't seem to be suffering from not doing so, like he could actually breathe under the water.

_What am I, some kind of merperson or something? No, that's stupid, Edward, merpeople don't exist! Just concentrate on finding that necklace. _He was lucky that he wasn't needing to constantly return to the surface for air, because that little necklace was being quite elusive.

He sighed, which surprised him that he could do that underwater, and was about to give up when he caught sight of something shiny below him. He dove down to where it was, and found...his auto-mail! Shocked, he quickly examined his right arm and where his left leg should've been, having not noticed that they had returned to the form they should've been in. Well, the ARM had returned to its proper form...he wasn't quite sure about the leg. Maybe the same force that had transformed him had restored him as well.

He pawed through the debris around the auto-mail, and was soon met with a small chain. Edward smiled. This might be it. He tugged at the chain, and out popped the distinctive snail snell pendant he had worn all these years. He quickly grabbed it with both hands and held it lovingly up to his face. _Thank you, Mom, for helping me get this back._

He quickly slipped it back over his neck and headed up to the surface. When his head popped above the water, he took a look around. The sun was getting quite low in the sky. It surprised him, as he hadn't realized that he had been under the water that long. He sighed. Winry and the others were probably worrying sick about him, but what was he to do? He couldn't very well go home. He didn't even have the means to get there. Going home required a set of legs, and he didn't appear to have that luxury at the moment.

Edward turned to look back in the direction that the Rockbell house was. He saw a small white light flashing on and off. A tear rolled down his cheek. They were worried about him, and were calling him home, but he couldn't come home.

"What kind of birthday was this?" he mumbled to himself as he sank below the waters of the lake.

**_Okay, remember, leave reviews, okay? I'll get up the next chapter as soon as possible, once I get my ramen, heh. See you soon, I hope!_**


	5. Chapter 5

**_Heh, this one took a little longer to write because I hit one of my traditional "rough spots" that I always hit in stories, but it wasn't too big of a deal, hehe. I pretty much got over it. Thanks to SakuraSagura for a lot of the ideas for this chapter, and to cuylerjade for her suggestions and counselling. While most of her ideas will be used in the next chapter, the counselling still helped me to get over the rough spot I was in, hehe._**

How many times do I need to say it? I disclaim! ((I think the more interesting question would actually be, how many times HAVE I said it, and in how many different ways? Heh, that could be rather interesting, actually. When I'm not tired and lazy, I can come up with pretty interesting disclaimers at times, hehe. Maybe I'll have to do the math and find out the answer to that sooner or later, including how many times I've forgotten to put a disclaimer up! Hehe.))

Edward woke up the next morning, feeling quite refreshed. He stretched his arms and took a deep breath, only to be startled by what he felt himself breathe in and jolted up to a sitting position. He had breathed in water. It hadn't hurt him at all, since he was built to handle it...but it had startled him, since he had thought for the moment when he was regaining consciousness that he was back at the Rockbell house. It really hurt for him to remember all of a sudden that he was not there.

"Of all the rotten luck," he muttered to himself while fingering his snail shell necklace, "Things were going so great, and then THIS had to happen!" He lifted himself up from the riverbed, and swam up to the surface. He had kind of hoped that maybe somehow, that Al or Winry would be around, so that he could explain what had happened. Heck, he'd settle for anyone being nearby, since he could always send them to bring said individuals to him, but there was no such luck.

Sighing, he turned around in place a few times. He wasn't sure how long he'd be able to stay here. This was a rather small lake, and he wasn't even sure if he knew how to take care of himself. He was also starting to feel a little bit sick, which he suspected was probably simply a symptom of being in fresh water. Maybe he belonged in the sea. He needed to be amongst his own kind, whatever and wherever his own kind were.

He sunk back below the water and sighed. "Where am I supposed to go?" he yelled to himself, "I don't belong here, so...where?"

Just then, the snail shell that he was wearing began to glow and floated out a little way from his chest. Ed's eyes went wide at the sight, but he remained still just to see what would happen. The snail shell continued to float away from his body and Ed soon was able to feel the pressure of a light tug coming from it. He didn't really understand what was going on, but then, nothing that had happened in the past few days had really made a lot of sense to him anyway, so he decided that maybe it would be best to just follow the snail shell, and see where it led.

It wasn't long before he found himself in the river, having left the lake. Naturally, it was even smaller than the lake was, and he had felt that the lake was small. He felt rather cramped in this small location, but there really wasn't a lot that could be done about it if he were to get back to wherever his own kind were. He closed his eyes and kind of floated in place for a minute or two, just stopping to think. He really hoped that he own people would accept him, being raised by human beings and everything. They were human beings, right? He shook his head. He really had no idea, and the necklace beckoned him on, so he decided just to keep going on.

Back at the Rockbell house, Winry was making a very angry phone call to Colonel Mustang. "How could you call him back all of a sudden like that? He wasn't due to come back for several days yet! Didn't you know how sick he was? Why I wouldn't be surprised if..."

"Whoa!" said the voice on the other end of the line, "I don't know what you're talking about Miss Rockbell, please slow down."

Winry stopped and took an agitated breath, and then started again. "Ed's gone missing, and I just can't believe that you would call him back early from a leave of absence you had personally forced him to take for his own good!"

"Good," said Colonel Mustang, "Don't believe it, because I didn't do such a thing. I knew that Fullmetal was really overworking himself lately, and that he needed a nice, long rest. That's why I sent him home to you."

"You mean...he hasn't returned?"

Roy hesitated, and then said, "...I'm sorry, but I know nothing about his disappearance. With you practically being his family, I would let you know if I knew anything like that, but I seriously don't."

At this news, Winry started choking up. "B-b-but, then, where could he be? It's not like him to just vanish like this, without a trace. He's never done this before, at least, not without warning us."

Colonel Mustang was about to reply when there was a knock at Winry's door. She asked Roy to hold, and then she went to see who it was.

She opened the door to reveal a rather weathered-looking fisherman. She stared at him in puzzlement for a moment, and was about to ask him what he wanted, when he asked question of his own. "Is this the place they make auto-mail?"

"Yes," Winry nodded, "This is Rockbell Auto-Mail."

The fisherman then proceeded to reveal a couple auto-mail limbs he had been carrying with him. "I just pulled these up from the lake. I was wondering if they might be yours."

Winry took one look at those auto-mail limbs, and instantly knew. "Ed!" she shrieked as her hands flew to her face. "No!" She turned to the fisherman. "Did you see a boy anywhere around there?"

The fisherman shook his head. "No, I'm sorry, miss. I only pulled up these here limbs and I brought them straight to ya. I ain't seen nothing of a boy."

Winry's gaze dropped and tears began to fill her eyes. "Th-thank you..." she couldn't bring herself to say anything more. The fisherman seemed to understand, so he simply nodded to her, put down the limbs, and left. Winry carefully picked up the auto-mail, carried it inside, and shut the door.

As soon as she had the door shut, she let her sobs come out audibly, completely forgetting that Colonel Mustang was still on the phone. He heard the sobs and began calling for her to come back to the phone and tell him what was the matter.

Fortunately, she managed to hear him. Though she was slightly embarrassed that she had let him hear that sobbing, and that she was still sobbing, since she couldn't stop once she'd started, she picked the phone back up and told him what had happened.

"So, Fullmetal's stuck without his auto-mail, huh? That can't be good." Roy paused for a second, and then continued. "Whatever you do, don't panic. He could very well still be alive. I'll send some men over there to scout out the area and find him. I wouldn't worry too much just yet. As strong as that boy is, he's probably okay, we just don't know where he is yet."

Winry nodded and grunted in response, but she was still skeptical. She was sure that something awful had to have happened to him. "Thank you..." she said. She wanted to say more, but she couldn't find anything more, especially since it was still a little bit difficult for her to talk with the man, since he had been the one that had been ordered to execute her parents. "...Bye."

"Goodbye, Miss Rockbell. We'll see you soon," said Roy. Click. He had hung up, so with a sigh, she replaced the phone on the receiver as well. What could have possibly happened to that boy?

**_Yawn. Okay, even though I know what I want to do for the next chapter, I think that I'm going to go to bed. I'm tired, and I want to write the chapter while I'm awake, not tired, hehe. So, if you'll forgive me for having to sleep like a normal human being, and just leave me a lot of nice reviews telling me to update, then I'll start updating like crazy again! Heh...okay, okay, I realize that one can't quite push the readers into anything...but I can give you my puppy dog stare, can't I? ((puppy dog stare)) Please, leave me lots of reviews for when I wake up in the morning...which will probably be after noon since I stay up so darn late, and I'll give you lots of updates in return. How's that? hehe._**


	6. Chapter 6

**_Sigh, once again, I don't have internet. I didn't have the money to pay it off this month, so they shut it off. Back to the ol' library routine until I can get it turned on again, I guess. Strangely enough though, I seem to update more when I have no internet. Weird, huh? Hehe...Anyway, hope that you enjoy this update. It's not as long as I'd like it to be...but like I said, it's at the library. I don't really have a choice but to create short chapters. Sigh._**

**_Disclaimer: I do not own FullMetal Alchemist. I'd come up with something witty to say, but that takes time, and I only have ten minutes left on this computer. ((Yeah, yeah, I can hear SakuraSagura telling me that time doesn't exist now, heh. Yes, I know, but it's not like I know how to break free from it! Hehe. (sticks tongue out) Okay, that was immature of me, but who cares? I'm always immature!))_**

Ed sank to the bottom of the river as he gripped his stomach in pain. He was hungry, he knew…but he didn't have a clue as to where to find food, let alone on what to eat. He was getting tired and weary from lack of nourishment, but he had to press on, or he may never be able to find his people. They would surely know what he needed to sustain himself.

He swam a few more yards, only to find himself starting to be overcome by dizziness. His blood sugar was dropping. He had to stop and eat, but wait, no, he couldn't stop, he had to keep going…but he couldn't, not with this low level of energy he now possessed.

Edward clasped the shell necklace in his left hand, as he had always done through the years to comfort himself. Somehow it had always made him feel better…perhaps it was because it reminded him of his mother.

"Please," he said aloud, not knowing who to talk to, but having the urge to speak, all the same, "I need to go on, but I don't have the strength. Please…" He hung his head, ashamed of his admission, even to himself, and began to let himself sink down to the bottom of the river.

Just then, the shell underneath his hand grew hot, and Edward jerked his hand away from it in surprise and stared at the lonely shell floating just a few inches from his chest. It was letting off a slightly yellowish glow, and the aura around it was slowly increasing in size until it had completely surrounded Edward's body. He didn't know what to make of this…it had to be an illusion…of course it was. If it was an illusion then, he didn't need to be afraid of it…but it felt so good somehow, so he closed his eyes, and let the feeling take over him.

A short while later, the feeling passed, and Edward's eyes opened. He still had a lingering feeling of tiredness which he suspected wouldn't actually leave until he ate something, but he felt a certain energy at the same time, one which he didn't have before. He smirked, telling himself that it was all just a trick of the mind, but that he wasn't going to argue himself into being tired again. Taking advantage of the situation, he swam furiously, trying to cover as much distance as he could before the effect wore off.

It wasn't long before the effect of the energy burst he had experienced actually DID wear off, and he once again began sinking lower in the water from pure exhaustion. He seriously couldn't go on like this. His blood sugar level was dipping too low for his safety, and he needed rest as well. Well, rest was easy to come by, at least.

He was about to swim down to the bottom of the river to find a place to rest when he realized that the current was actually a lot stronger at this point than he'd anticipated, and it wouldn't let him stay in one place. This certainly wasn't a place one could rest. He swam back up to the surface and poked his head above water to try and get a grasp of his surroundings, but it didn't help much. All he could see was fast-moving water, with a bit of unfamiliar land stretched on either side of the river. No help whatsoever.

He submerged himself once again, and continued swimming in the direction that the current was pulling him, deciding that it wasn't worth the energy it'd cost to fight against it. He rubbed his arms in an attempt to warm himself up, as that surface air had felt quite cold to him right then. That was probably normal though. After all, he was wet, and it was pretty easy to get cold this time of year when you were wet. It was winter, after all…he was just lucky that Rizenbul…or wherever he was right now…didn't always stick to the rule of having snow in winter. Sometimes it was warm enough where one could wear shorts outside…not like anyone would ever catch him doing that…if he had legs, that is.

Edward continued along the current, slowly finding himself dipping in and out of consciousness. He really needed to sleep, but there wasn't anyplace around here that he could do so. He shrugged. He was practically sleeping now as it was, and the current was still pulling him forward. It couldn't be more dangerous to let himself fully sleep, so he closed his eyes, completely submitting himself to the mercy of the current.

It wasn't until he felt himself being thrown around mercilessly by the current that he finally woke up, and swam up to the surface to find out what was going on. It surprised him that it was even hard to get to the surface this time, considering how strong the current was right now. Thank goodness he didn't seem to need to breathe air, or he'd have died long ago.

He once again poked his head above the surface, and looked around. This time, however, his jaw practically dropped down to his fins. That explained the heavy current he seemed to be trapped in. There was a huge cutoff only a few yards distant. If he didn't get out of there, and fast, he was going to surely plummet over the waterfall. He knew that fish seemed to be able to handle such a fall…but…well…he wasn't exactly a fish, and he wasn't too keen on experimenting with his waterfall survival skills. He had to get out.

On his first impulse, he simply spun around and started trying to paddle back the way he had come. Of course, after only a second or two of trying such a futile attempt, he smacked his head for even thinking such a dumb idea, and tried to come up with a better one, one that wouldn't require much energy, since he didn't have much.

"I have to get to shore, it's my only chance," he managed to mutter to himself between gulps of air and water, as the current was continuing to throw the poor boy around mercilessly in its waves, like he was a toy. Edward picked the nearest shore, and began swimming with all his might to try and reach it. He had to get there, he had no other option.

He had nearly reached the shore, and had grabbed a hold of some reeds to try and stabilize himself as he pulled his body the rest of the way…but, alas, his grip on the reeds slipped, and a few of them uprooted in his hand, sending him on his way towards the waterfall once again, with only a fistful of reeds in his hand to prove that he had tried.

Edward's heart began beating faster. "No, I'm not going to die! I can't!" He dove down into the water in the hopes of finding something to hold onto…anything. He grabbed at some very smooth stones that lined the bottom of the riverbed at this location due to the excessively fast current, but his grip slipped over them, and all he got for his efforts was the irritating feeling of scratching his fingernails against stone.

Finally, he had reached the edge. There was nothing for him to hold onto, no way to turn back. If he'd had time to react emotionally to this situation, besides the automatic symptoms of fear, due to the adrenaline rush, he probably would have been crying by now, despite how unmanly it made him look.

He felt himself slip. He was falling. This was it. He was going to die, he knew it. Why had be been so stupid as to not see this coming? Most rivers have waterfalls somewhere on them if you followed them long enough, why hadn't he thought of that? What were Al and Winry doing now? And Auntie Pinako? What were they thinking about his sudden disappearance? Were they worried about him? He surely missed them. Heck, he almost missed that smug-faced Colonel Mustang about now. All he wanted right now was to see a familiar face, be held by someone he loved, and be told that everything would be alright, but he knew that that was not about to happen. His life was flashing before his eyes as he slowly descended to his watery grave.

Finally, after what seemed like an eternity, he made impact with the earth below. For one brief moment, he opened up his eyes to try and assess where he was, but was swept away from his perch by the current he was now in, which he had absolutely no strength to resist, whether it was strong or not. His strength was completely gone.

Edward's lips twitched for a split second as he tried to think of a name to call. Maybe someone would hear him, and fetch the requested person to be by his side, but he only had the strength to call one name…who should he call for? For that matter, how would he even get his head above the water to make sure anyone heard him?

Realizing he was beaten by the forces of nature beyond his control, he closed his eyes without saying anything, and let out a single sob, just before the impact's effects caught up with him, and everything went black.

**_I hope you liked that. Leave me some reviews, so that I can update, hehe. Oh, and it looks like Fanfiction finally got its alerts working again, so make sure to go and read "My Body, Your Soul - Revised" and give it some reviews so that I can update that too. It's a rewrite of my classic story, and I'd hate to see it get less reviews than the original, just because the alerts didn't go out, heh. Anyway, hope to see you all around again soon! Ta ta for now! ((Yes, that saying's annoying, I know, but again, who cares? Hehe))_**


	7. Chapter 7

**_Okay, finally got up another chapter! Whoopee! Hehe...um...yeah, anyway, heh...hope you enjoy._**

**_Disclaimer: I do not own FuLlMeTaL aLcHeMiSt! Hey, capitalizing every other letter makes it cooler, right? That's what all these teens these days seem to think. I honestly don't know where they get their ideas of what is and isn't cool, heh. Hmm...maybe the harder you make something to read, the cooler it is. Yeah, that must be it._**

A girl slowly walked through the woods, a basket of clothes propped up under her right arm, resting against her hip. She frequently came out this way to wash her clothes in the river, since the heavy current made it all the easier. Living in a log cabin wasn't exactly what one would call luxurious, what with having no electricity or running water, but it was the way she had lived for the past few years since her father had disappeared, and she couldn't bring herself to complain about it.

She stopped for a second to rub her eyes with her free hand and try to stifle a yawn, consoling herself by saying that this was the last chore she had to do today, and then she could go home and turn in early. She could already hear the sound of the water cascading over the cliff from here, so she knew that she was close. Might as well get it over with.

The girl made her way to the edge of the river, and found a place that was a bit of distance from the waterfall, so that she could stay safe. She began to take the laundry out of the basket and spread it out on the shore, when she chanced to glance up. Just a few yards downstream from her, she caught a glimpse of a figure resting on the shore. That was odd; no one ever came this way. Overcome by curiosity, she stood up, leaving her clothes behind, and made her way to the still form by the river.

When she'd gotten within five feet of the figure, she stopped, paralyzed by confusion, and just stared. What the heck was that thing? Part of her mind kept telling her it was a person and the other part kept telling her it was a fish, though she couldn't bring herself to subscribe to either side, since neither one seemed to be able to make sense of the information her eyes were transmitting to her brain. After all, the part that was a person seemed to cut off at the waist on this figure, and then the rest seemed to be a fish.

The girl gulped for a second and continued to stare. This figure sort of reminded her of all those fairytales she'd heard as a child about mermaids and such…but mermaids didn't really exist…did they? Even if they did, what would they be doing in a river…by a waterfall, no less? It just didn't make sense.

A moan coming from the figure brought her back to reality. She still couldn't seem to rationalize the situation in her head, but she wasn't about ready to wait for her logic to catch up with her heart, and in the mean time let this being perish. It was obvious enough that they needed help. Logic would just have to take the back burner for now.

She knelt down next to the figure on the ground, the riverside mud beginning to soak into her skirt. Sigh. Now she'd have another piece of clothing to clean…but that wasn't important right now. She placed her hand on the figure's forehead. It was still warm, so that was a good sign…though when she pulled her hand away, she found that there were traces of blood on her hand. That wasn't a good sign. It indicated some head injury…which, if this being had just come over the waterfall, was to be expected.

The figure was lying on their stomach, so the girl carefully stood up and flipped them over onto their back so that she could get a good look at them. There was a lot of mud covering the front side of this being, but it didn't matter. She was still able to examine them well enough.

When she saw the chest on the figure, she couldn't help but blush a bit. The chest was flat, indicating that this being was male. She had previously thought that, judging by the long hair and all, that perhaps it was female, therefore, a mermaid. Apparently that wasn't the case, and this was…well…a merman. She blushed even harder, but quickly shook her head to rid herself of these emotions. She didn't have time for this. This…boy…whatever he was, needed help right now.

She sighed to herself. "Well, mister, whoever you are, I guess I'm stuck with caring for you for awhile." Even though she was halfway trying to act annoyed at the prospect, she smiled through it. It had been awhile since she'd had anyone as a guest at her house, so she found herself actually a bit excited about having someone over…even if they were a…merman.

When Edward woke up, he found himself in an old porcelain bathtub. The shock of the sudden change in surroundings triggered a slight headache, so he put his hand to his forehead only to discover that his head had been bandaged. He slowly lowered his hand in a movement of confusion, and cautiously glanced around the room.

He seemed to be in some sort of old fashioned kitchen or something, or at least near one, since he could see an old wood stove nearby. The walls themselves were made out of logs, which clued him into the fact that he seemed to be in some sort of log cabin, which would explain the very old fashioned things to be found here, everything running on fire or manual labor.

Ed placed his hand in the water in the tub he was in. This bathtub must have been pretty expensive, unless it had been passed down through the family for generations. Further, there was no running water, so whoever had brought him here must have gone through so much work to fill it, especially since the water was still warm. Being winter, the water from the river definitely wasn't warm. It was freezing, actually, but his body seemed capable of handling it, somehow.

Edward heard a door slam and he jumped. He nervously craned his neck around, trying to catch a glimpse of the source of the noise before they saw that he was awake, but whatever it was, it was out of his field of vision. He slumped back into the tub. There was really nothing he could do but just lie there and wait to see what would happen to him. It wasn't like he could just drag himself across the floor to escape whatever it was, unless he wanted to get severely injured.

He tensed as he heard very heavy and spread apart footsteps approaching the room he was occupying. Someone was in here, and they were going to see that he was awake soon. Should he fake his still being asleep? Maybe that would be safer, until he knew just who it was that had taken him in. He closed his eyes, leaving them open at just little slits so that he could see who came in to see him, and waited.

The girl from before pushed open the door to the room Edward was in and laboriously walked in, carrying a full washtub of hot water. She set it down in front of the bathtub, stood up and sighed, and then knelt down in front of Edward, who was still trying very hard to not reveal that he was awake.

The girl placed her hand on Edward's forehead, as if trying to feel his temperature through the bandages. "So, how are you feeling now?" Naturally, she got no response, so she just removed her hand, and then gently tipped Edward's head forward, so that she could untie the knots that were holding the bandages to Edward's head. "I need to replace these bandages, okay? I'll do my best to be gentle." Still no response from Edward, though that was to be expected.

The girl untied the bandage and began unwinding it from around Edward's head, when Edward winced involuntarily from the pain. The girl smirked. "You've been awake all this time, haven't you?" Edward's eyes closed tightly, and he tensed in response. The girl placed her hand on Ed's face and turned it so that he would be looking into hers if he had his eyes open. "You don't have to be afraid of me. I'm not going to hurt you; I'm trying to help you. Please trust me."

Trust. That wasn't something Edward had much of for anyone, especially someone that he had just met, but there really wasn't anything that he could do about the situation. He couldn't run away from this girl if she were to try and hurt him, after all. He supposed he'd have to trust her that far…but she still didn't need to know any more about him than she absolutely needed to in order to take care of him.

Edward slowly opened his eyes and looked into the girl's face. She smiled. "So, you DO understand what I'm saying. I was starting to wonder if you even spoke the same language. What language do you merpeople speak, anyway?"

At that comment, Edward sat up abruptly and stared into the girl's face. "I'm not a merman! There is no such thing!" Suddenly realizing that he'd just revealed that he could speak, he clamped his mouth shut, as if hoping that that would help the girl to forget that he had done so.

The girl herself had jumped back; a bit startled at his response, but recovered quickly, and came forward to him again. The corner of her mouth twitched as if teasing at a smile, and she said, "Um…sorry…what are you then?" Edward's mouth opened automatically to respond to her question, but then realized that he really didn't have an answer for her, so he closed it again and shrugged.

"I…somehow took on this form recently…I barely know anything about myself, or my people." The girl nodded in response and continued to unwrap the bandage from Edward's forehead, him jumping a couple times when she'd had to remove a part of the bandage that had dried on blood that was clinging to his skin. That hurt a bit, but he managed to bear with it. This was nothing like auto-mail installation.

The girl finally got the bandage off of Edward's forehead, and proceeded to take out a clean cloth, apply some sort of chemical to it, and begin wiping off Edward's forehead with it. Edward jumped as soon as he felt it. The girl rolled her eyes, and said, "Hold still! I know it stings a bit, but you'll get an infection if this area isn't cleaned before we put another bandage on it." Edward returned her words with a glare, but held still and let her do the service to him.

Finally, she got the new bandage wrapped around his head, and was tying it off as she said, "There, that's better, isn't it?"

Edward placed his hand on the bandage to feel it, and then nodded his head slightly. "Yes, it's much better…Thanks."

The girl smiled, and then went and picked up the now slightly cooled washtub of water. "You'd better watch out, this water's still a little warm." Without further warning, she hauled it up on her own strength, and poured the entire thing into the bathtub, Edward having to quickly duck out of the way of the stream of water to keep from getting scorched by it…not like it would've caused any real damage, since it wasn't THAT hot, but it still wouldn't have felt that great.

The girl set the washtub back down on the floor, and turned it upside down so that she could sit on it. Edward once again sat up straight in the bathtub and looked at her, thanking her for the hard work she was putting forth for his sake. True, he had the tendency to forget his manners once in awhile, but not when it was so glaring about how much someone was actually doing for him.

Edward cleared his throat. He didn't want to continue to refer to this person as "the girl", so he thought he'd better ask her for a name, though he realized that that would most likely trigger her to ask the same question of him. He couldn't really see any way around that, but it couldn't really do any harm to let her know that his first name was Edward, could it? "Um…" he began, "…Could I have your name? I don't really want to keep referring to you ask 'the girl' or something."

At this, the girl laughed and nearly fell off of her washtub seat. When she regained control of herself, she crossed her arms and plainly said, "I'll tell you my name if you tell me yours."

Ed rolled his eyes. It was just as he had suspected. "Fine," he said, "My name is Edward, now tell me yours."

The girl snickered at his slightly irritated/bossy response, and then replied, "Sylvia. Nice to meet you, Edward." She stuck out her hand and took Edward's wet hand in hers, and shook it without warning. Edward was a little taken aback by her sudden gesture, but nodded in response. Sylvia chuckled and then spun around and began walking out of the room, sending last comments on her way out.

"I'm going to turn in now, okay? I'm a little tired. If you need anything, just yell. I'm in the next room." Without another look back, she walked out of the room, and slammed the door behind her.

Edward leaned back in the tub, and shook his head. Here he had left Rizenbul without warning, and was now stuck out in the middle of nowhere with a strange girl that he knew nothing about. If only he had stayed long enough for Al and Winry to find him in the lake, maybe things would've turned out better. No, he couldn't think like that, he'd HAD to start journeying towards the ocean…but maybe he should've planned things out a little better. He could've used some of Al's wisdom right then. Al. He missed Al. And Winry. And Auntie. Heck, he could almost say he missed that smug-faced Colonel, but he wasn't about to admit that, even to himself.

"I just hope things work out soon. Al, Winry, Auntie, I hope that I get to see you all again." He began to let himself slide down in the tub so that his head was starting to go underwater. As he did so, he muttered, "And screw you, Colonel," and then went completely under.

**_Anyway, I hope that you enjoyed that. Please leave me some reviews, so that I can update, hehe. Take care, and have a nice day. Hope to see you around again soon!_**


	8. Chapter 8

**_Welcome back! Sorry it took so long to get this chapter out. I only have two hours of internet time per day, and I rarely ever write up quick little one thousand word chapters anymore, so I can't exactly get them posted every day like I used to, heh. This likely would've actually been a much longer chapter if I had been willing to keep going with this one chapter, but I'm not sure how long my floppy disk will last before it corrupts, so I don't want to have to rely on it for too long. Anyway, hope you enjoy this!_**

**_Disclaimer: Two words: I don't own FullMetal Alchemist._**

Ed woke up the next morning when he felt a vibration come through the bottom of the bathtub that felt like someone had just slammed a door and was walking across the room. In response, he sat up and looked around. Sylvia walked up to him, smiling, and holding a plate in her hands. "Good morning, Sleepyhead. How's the forehead?"

Ed reached up and touched the bandage, which by now was soaking wet since he'd been sleeping under the water with it wrapped around his head, and nodded slightly before responding, "It's fine I guess."

Apparently, Sylvia knew that that was the best kind of affirmative answer she could get out of Ed, because she relaxed her shoulders and smiled as though he'd said yes, and then she went and placed the plate she was holding on the upside down washtub that was still positioned in front of the bathtub. She stood back up and turned to Ed. "You haven't eaten in awhile, have you?" Ed turned and looked at her with a question written across his face as though he was wondering how the heck she could tell that when he hadn't told her, since he was trying to keep his life a secret.

At this, Sylvia threw back her head and laughed. Well, at least she was able to be happy. Somebody needed to be happy in this world. Ed hung his head and looked down at the water, as if in contemplating it. Sylvia then knelt down next to him and placed her hand on his shoulder. "Edward, you really can't hide much from me. I know that you're not well. I know what sick human beings look like, and what sick fish look like, and you have the signs of both of them."

Edward wasn't sure if he should give the girl a glare in response to that comment, since he wasn't too keen on being referred to as a fish, but he let it slide. It was true, after all…his tail WAS showing the signs of a sick fish. He was pale all over his body, for that matter. Was this all from not eating anything for a few days?

Sylvia interrupted his thoughts. She grabbed a forkful of the food that was on the plate and shoved it into Ed's mouth without warning, forcing him to swallow it after he had choked a couple times. "You have to eat, fishboy…you're obviously going to get sick if you don't."

Ed turned and glared at her. Fishboy? That had been uncalled for. "Are you trying to turn me into a cannibal? I can't eat fish!" He spat and rubbed the residue off of his mouth, trying to cleanse himself from the offending substance, though nothing had actually come out of his mouth when he had spat, since he'd already been forced to swallow the forkful of fish that Sylvia had given him.

Sylvia couldn't help herself, and started laughing again. She shook her head and then slapped Ed's face, sending him back into the bathtub unexpectedly. "Edward, you idiot…you're not a fish! It's not cannibalism! Just because you bear some similarities to one doesn't mean you ARE one! Humans are mammals…does that mean it's cannibalistic to eat other mammals?" She paused for a moment to let her words drive home, and Edward squirmed a bit under her glare. This girl was a bit too much like Winry…and that was simultaneously comforting and scary at the same time. No, wait a minute…forget comforting, it was just pure scary.

Sylvia cleared her throat. "Just because you have a fish's body doesn't mean you can't eat fish. Heck, I suspect that you actually NEED to eat it, since there isn't going to be a lot else to eat where you're going…that's why I chose this for you to eat." She locked her stare onto Edward's face, and waited for a response. He wasn't exactly willing to give one immediately, since that Winry stare of hers was just too terrifying, but finally, he had to give in. Darn, he could just never win against that Winry stare.

"Fine, give me the plate." Sylvia didn't bother to correct him about his manners, and just handed him the plate of fish she had prepared for him. Edward proceeded to devour the contents of the plate faster than she thought any human was even capable of eating. Well, Ed wasn't exactly human, but his top half was built like one, so he should still fit into the same category. She concluded that he must've been incredibly hungry, but hadn't been willing to say so. Poor guy…must've been the kind of person who was afraid to show a weak side.

Finally, Ed had cleared the plate, and handed it back to Sylvia, remembering his manners in time to thank her. He then relaxed his stance a bit so that his head slid down to resting on the edge of the bathtub. Ed's hair hung in a very messy braid over the edge. Sylvia chuckled and set down the plate on the floor, and came over to kneel by the edge of the tub where Ed's head was resting. "How long has it been since you fixed your hair?" she said, taking his braid in her hands.

Ed sighed, and rolled his head over to the side, indicating that he really didn't care at the moment. "A while. Ever since I found out I-" he suddenly realized that he had been about to spill everything, and clamped his mouth shut. Sylvia nodded, though Ed's head was turned to her, so he didn't see. She had suspected as much, since he'd been acting so strangely. He'd only recently discovered what he was.

"Is it alright if I fix your hair for you?" she asked.

Ed shrugged, causing himself to sink about an inch deeper into the bathtub. "Knock yourself out." Sylvia smiled and grabbed her brush, and began undoing the rubber band that was holding the braid in place. It was knotted up pretty badly, so this was no easy task, but after a minute or two, it finally came free. She then loosened the braid itself up, so that it was hanging freely, and started gently running the brush through his hair.

"So was it a spell that caused you to turn into a merman?" Edward stiffened and sat up all of a sudden, pulling the brush out of Sylvia's hand, and causing it to fall into the water.

Edward turned and sent Sylvia a glare of his own. "Whatever gave you that idea? MAGIC DOESN'T EXIST!" His heart rate began to accelerate. Did she know anything? If so, how did she know? He hadn't told her anything…had he? He couldn't remember having said anything, unless it had been in his sleep.

Sylvia rolled her eyes and retrieved her brush from the bathtub. She was about to start the process of brushing his hair again, when she decided against it, since he was still glaring at her, and would obviously not cooperate with her at this moment, so she just threw the brush down on the floor, and propped her arms up on the edge of the tub to look at Ed. "I was only asking because, with the way you're acting, it's obvious that you haven't been this way very long. I was just wondering if someone had turned you into a merman or something."

Edward turned away from her and stared at some distant corner of the ceiling for about five seconds, and then turned back to her and said, "It's none of your business." He was about to go back under the water, anything to escape the questions of the inquiring girl, but Sylvia had been too quick to get to her feet, and she had grabbed him by his hair. Now he was stuck in place, unless he wanted to get his hair pulled out by its roots.

"It is TOO by business, since I'm TRYING to take care of you! If I hadn't have come along when I did, you would have surely died of dehydration and that concussion that you took on as a result of falling over a waterfall. I only want to help you. Now," she paused for emphasis once again, as she reached and grabbed something with her free hand. She raised it up to show the object to Edward, a pair of scissors. "Speak up, or lose your hair."

Edward narrowed his eyes, and looked at her. Now she was just playing dirty. This girl still kind of reminded him of Winry, which was still just as scary, since she didn't look anything like her. Was he sure it WASN'T Winry in disguise? Yeah, that must be it. It was Winry in disguise. Of course, she had a better build than Winry, and was a bit smaller, so he wasn't sure how she would've even pulled such a stunt off. Oh wait, he wasn't supposed to think that. If Winry ever found out…nah, she'd never find out what he was thinking about. There was nothing to worry about.

Edward sighed. He could never win against Winry…even if it wasn't really Winry. "Fine, you win. What about me do you want to know?"

Sylvia finally loosened her grip on Edward's hair, and a big smile grew across her face. "That's more like it." She took her seat on the washtub like she had the day before, and folded her hands in her lap. She looked up at the boy still occupying her bathtub, and asked, "So, Edward, when did this happen?"

Edward rolled his eyes and sighed. He didn't want to talk, he didn't want to talk, he didn't want to…darn! Why could he never win? "It was on my sixteenth birthday…I just suddenly transformed, without warning, and I've been trying to get to the ocean since then." He bit his lip. He knew he had said too much. He shouldn't have even said that much, yet he did. Now he was dead, he was sure. He was so dead. He closed his eyes and waited for the inevitable whateverness that was going to fall upon him to happen.

Sylvia picked up her brush and began brushing Edward's hair again. "That makes sense, actually. I was wondering if it was something like that." She paused for a second, and Ed felt her toying with his hair for some reason, which he couldn't quite figure out, but he brushed it off and just let her continue. "I was thinking that it must've happened recently to you, since you seemed to not understand certain concepts that one of your kind normally would have…So…you were raised as a human, right?"

Ed coughed. That had been a rather awkward way of wording the question, since he still thought of himself as human for the most part, but he couldn't disagree with it, so he nodded. Sylvia cleared her throat and continued brushing his hair. "That makes sense too…I guess that I must be right in that you had some sort of…spell…cast on you to make you human, so now it's wearing off."

Ed half chuckled, and bounced his shoulders a tiny bit in accompaniment. "I'd say that it already HAS worn off, not that it IS wearing off…though I still don't think it was a spell."

Sylvia just shook her head and ignored that last comment. She was starting to get used to the boy's ways about him by now, and it didn't faze her to hear him constantly deny the existence of magic, though merpeople were most certainly magical beings. He was an unusual one; that was for sure. "I'm just saying," she said, giving a tug to his hair to drive the message in, "That whatever caused you to take human form isn't likely going to wear off completely, all at once. You probably will still transform once in awhile if it was that recently that it started to wear off."

Ed grunted and rolled over, not wanting to talk to the girl anymore. In the process of rolling over, he pulled his hair out of Sylvia's hand. She put her hands on her hips and stared for a moment, and then brought up the brush and whacked Ed over the head with it, causing him to sit up straight in a hurry. She'd been careful to avoid the damaged part of his head, but she didn't go light on the undamaged part. Boy, she sure smacked of Winry. Scary, scary, scary.

"What was that for?" Ed gingerly rubbed the newest addition to his collection of sore spots, bruises, and other injuries that he seemed to be accumulating. Sylvia sat back on her heels, and crossed her arms over her chest, holding the brush in her right hand in a very menacing manner.

"Edward, I'm trying to help you, but you're making it very difficult!" She stopped and relaxed her shoulders a bit, and allowed her eyes to be drawn to the floor, which by now, was gathering quite a bit of water from all the splashing that occurred as a result of Ed's fussiness about everything in sight. She then dropped her hands to her knees and began to clench her fists. "Please, it's hard enough to brush hair that won't stay still while you try to brush it without you further hindering my progress."

Ed didn't quite know how to respond to that. What the heck did she mean, hair that wouldn't stay still? He turned and looked at her…she suddenly looked a lot smaller, a lot weaker than she had before. It was surprising that he hadn't noticed that. She had always seemed so tough and lively…like Winry. Of course, Winry had her own weak moments too. He frowned and closed his eyes. He couldn't continue causing her so much trouble without his conscience bothering him for it. If only he could get out of here, but he was out of his element.

"Look, I'm…" his voice trailed off. He was genuinely sorry for all the trouble he had caused, but apologizing wasn't exactly the easiest thing to do. It put one in a weak position, and being in that position was painful. Regardless, he took a deep break and opened up his eyes to see Sylvia looking at him, waiting for him to finish what he had begun to say. He open his mouth again to speak, when he felt something brushing against the side of his face. He shook his head to make the feeling go away, and tried to talk again, only to have the feeling return. "What the-"

He turned to look and see what was bothering him, and almost turned white from the sight. His hair was moving on its own.

**_Sorry if I ended that too abruptly. Feel free to tell me what you think and give me suggestions. Either way, leave me some reviews, and I'll try to update as soon as I can, okay? Take care, and have a nice day!_**


	9. Chapter 9

**_Hehe...okay, I managed to get out another chapter. Hope you enjoy! Hehe...it's so weird...I always have these plans of lots of plot points happening in one chapter, but now that I'm learning to be more descriptive, I can't fit nearly as many plot points into one chapter as I used to! Waaah! ((Well, maybe that's a good thing, actually. It doesn't end so quickly then, hehe.))_**

**_Disclaimer: Heh, I asked a friend if she had an idea for a disclaimer, and one of our ghost friends volunteered one instead. He's the same one that wrote "My Body, Your Soul", "To Believe in a Ghost" and played Ed in "Ed, Roy, and the Foosball Table", but this is his first disclaimer, hehe. _**(Grr... Okay, fine! Here's your disclaimer... I don't own FMA, because, if I did, I'd have to own Roy Mustang and he's a super **beep** that likes to screw around with people's lives... or, um, deaths in this case. He's not as tall as he thinks he is either! His head is so full of hot air he's actually floating and can produce fire from his hot head as well. He's not as good looking as, nor will he ever will be, Edward Elric! Speaking of which, i'd like to own FMA if it meant owning Ed, you know why? He's the-) **_That's about where he was cut off. I have no idea what else he wanted to say, hehe._**

"What the-? This is freaky!" Edward tried brushing his hair away from his face, only to have it return to him. He then switched to shaking his head to keep it out of his face, but this only made him dizzy. It was rather fruitless to try and escape one's own hair. He finally resorted to burying his face in his hands in an effort to keep his hair out of his face, and tried to tell Sylvia in muffled yells to cut it off, and quickly.

Sylvia placed her hands on her hips and slowly stood up. She took a step towards the tub which contained the still frightened merboy, and said, "I'll do no such thing. I rather suspect that living hair is a perfectly natural phenomenon for merpeople, and we don't know what would happen to you if I were to try and cut it off now." Sylvia then proceeded to cross her arms in front of her chest for emphasis, and Ed involuntarily shivered. He'd apparently caught the message.

"But..." Ed stammered, at a total loss for words, "This...has never happened to me before! How could it be perfectly natural if-"

Sylvia didn't even give him the time to finish his statement. He would've just been rambling on and on about nothing anyway, even if she had. "Well, perhaps it's because you've never been a merman before?" Ed took his hands away from his face and looked up at her. He was about to object with something along the lines of that he'd been a merman for several days, but this hadn't happened in all that time. Oh great, now he was finally using the word 'merman' to describe himself. Did that make it true now? "Obviously," said Sylvia, picking up on his thoughts by reading the expression on his face, "You've had your hair in that braid the whole time. It couldn't move. This is the first time it's been allowed to move."

Ed frowned. That made sense in a strange sort of way, but he figured that Sylvia was still taking it as no big deal, which kind of annoyed him. Finding out that you were actually a merman all along, and having to accept that unscientific notion, as well as getting used to all the strange quirks merpeople seemed to have without even having any sort of communication with merpeople...well, let's just say that it's not easy. Sylvia didn't seem to be making a big enough deal out of it for his liking.

Sylvia sat down on the upside down washtub once again and looked at Ed. He wasn't looking at her this time, since that hair of his was keeping him fully occupied with him just trying to keep it out of his face. He had at one time reached up to brush some of it away from his eyes, only to have that strand of hair start to wrap around his wrist. Needless to say, he was beyond creeped out.

Sylvia coughed and finally got Ed to turn his attention to her. She raised up her brush so that he could see it, and said, "Would you like me to braid your hair? I'm sure I can still do it, even with moving hair...but you yourself will have to hold still...understand?" She raised her eyebrow and leaned forward, making sure that Ed had caught her message. Ed gulped and nodded. Yep, he'd caught the message. Geez, Winry and her wrench, and Sylvia and her brush. Why did all the women in his life have to carry around a weapon of some sort?

Sylvia got up and headed over to the edge of the bathtub, where she could access the back of Ed's head easily, and quickly grabbed ahold of all Ed's long hair before it could squirm away from her. There wasn't much she could do to tame his bangs, so they were still going to move a bit, but the long strands were what was causing Ed the most grief anyway. She ran a few quick brush strokes through the hair, and then separated it into three parts, twisting each of the parts so that it couldn't squirm loose of her grip. Ed was sitting surprisingly still this whole time. Apparently, he'd finally found legitimate reason to do so, and he wasn't going to move for anything until she'd finished her work on his hair.

It wasn't long before Sylvia finally got Ed's hair braided together and tied in place, so that it couldn't undo itself. It had been a little tricky from time to time though, because his hair had sometimes tried to squirm out of her grip, and she would have to catch it again and braid it in. It was almost like it was trying to avoid being braided, but that didn't seem very logical. How could hair think along those lines of not wanting to be braided together?

When she was finished, Ed reached back to examine her work. It was quite well done, especially considering the circumstances. "Uh...thanks..." he said, albeit a bit hesitantly. Sylvia raised an eyebrow, having noticed something a bit odd about the way he had said that. Upon getting no further explanation from Ed, she glared at his back, which was still turned to her. Ed shivered from the sensation of her glare, which even the most non-psychic person would've been able to pick up, and he turned around to face her. Sylvia's attitude lightened up right away, since she didn't want to scare the boy, so Ed relaxed a bit.

Ed rested his head on the edge of the bathtub and sighed. "Call me crazy," he said, "But it almost feels like...I don't know...like my hair is...trapped...somehow." Understanding suddenly dawned on Sylvia, and she involuntarily nodded. Yes, that made sense to her. The hair of a merperson wasn't merely dead protein like on a human being, but an actual extension of their body. So, they would be able to feel everything that happened to their hair. Ed had only a few minutes ago allowed his hair to feel the sensation of moving about freely for the first time, and so he had been reluctant to tie it back up, even though his conscious mind said otherwise. It must've felt more...well, right...for him to have his hair loose.

Sylvia shook her head. "I don't think that you're crazy, Edward." She stood up and brushed her skirt off, and then picked up her brush, and turned to leave. "I think that you're meant to let your hair hang loose, but you're just not ready to deal with that yet. I'd be happy to tie it up for you anytime you wish...but go ahead and take it out whenever you feel like it, and let it rest. I'm sure it would feel better if you did." With that, she turned and left the room.

Edward spent the next few hours, in between visits from Sylvia, just trying to adjust to this new lifestyle he was being forced into...especially the hair. That was the weirdest part of everything that had happened to him thus far, in his opinion. There was no getting used to it. He could actually feel it when he would touch it with his hands, and when he would duck under the water, his hair would pick of the feeling of every current and ripple that he would create. If his people lived in the ocean, having such an ability to detect such small variations in things actually made sense to have, since it would help them to find food or avoid falling prey to creatures that would wish to do them harm. Yes, it made sense, but it was hard to accept, all the same.

Edward sat back up in the bathtub after having been under the water for a period of time, and rubbed the water out of his eyes. He could still feel his bangs rubbing against him, and the long strands struggling to get themselves loose from the braid, but by now, he was used to it. All of a sudden, the motion in his hair stopped, without any warning. If he had been awake before, he was now much more awake than ever. He placed his hand on his head to try and feel it through his hair...but could feel nothing. His hair had gone back to the dead state that it was at when he was in human form.

Something was definitely wrong here. This couldn't be good. He needed to call for Sylvia. He managed to get the first syllable of her name out before he cut himself off. He had felt a strange feeling in his tail, and he was now gripping it, muttering some sort of random frettings to himself.

"Edward, are you okay?" Edward heard Sylvia's footsteps getting closer. No, she couldn't come in yet. He just needed a little more time, that was all...but there was no time to spare. He'd never tried this, but now was as good a time to try as any. Edward grabbed ahold of the side of the bathtub, and used all of his strength to push himself up and over the side. He landed on the wooden floor with a plop. Now he just hoped that he was correct in what he was thinking...since he was now a fish out of water. Literally.

When Sylvia heard the plop on the floor, she quickened her pace. "Edward, are you okay?" She repeated her question from before, having not gotten an answer the first time. A moment of waiting revealed no answer this time either. "Edward?" she called again, "Edward! Answer me!" Still no response from the blond-haired boy. Sylvia was practically running now, fear overtaking her as to what could have happened to him. All the worst case scenarios that had the possibility of happening, though not the probability, raced through her head, and her heart was beating against her rib cage. If she didn't find out what was going on soon, she was bound to have a heart attack.

Finally, she reached the door to the kitchen, where the bathtub was located, and she thrust it open. Looking around to survey the situation, she caught the sight of Edward quickly adjusting a towel around himself...while standing on a pair of legs! Sylvia was breathless. She absolutely could not believe what she was seeing. She had only ever seen Edward as a merman, so she had never been able to picture him like this, with actual legs!

Edward looked up and saw Sylvia staring at him with her mouth wide open, like her jaw was about to fall off. Ed blushed a bit, since she had had to catch him at a time when he didn't have any decent clothes to wear...though thankfully, he'd been able to find this towel in time, so he wasn't completely naked. He looked up into her shocked face and raised his eyebrows. "What? You said that the spell, or whatever it was, might not have worn off completely yet. It turns out you were right."

Sylvia stared blankly for a few seconds, and then suddenly realized that she was supposed to respond, which she proceeded to do, albeit a bit awkwardly. She walked into the room, and managed to find a place to sit down at without tripping over herself. Edward noticed her lead and proceeded to attempt to do the same, though it was pretty obvious that he was having a bit of trouble maneuvering. It made sense though...he hadn't walked in days.

Ed made himself as comfortable as possible on the upside down washtub and breathed a sigh of relief. The poor guy had obviously struggled more than he ought to have in order to get on his feet so quickly, though he would surely relearn how to use them quickly. Sylvia sat spellbound nearby, not saying a word, until Ed slowly looked up at her, and hesitantly asked, "Um...you wouldn't happen to have any clothes I could wear...would you?"

Sylvia leapt up quickly and blushed, embarrassed that she'd forgotten that he would need clothes in a situation like this. Well, these sorts of things didn't happen every day...so who prepared for them. "Why, uh, why of course!" she said, "My dad has a lot of clothes that he left here, I'll get some of them for you." She started to leave, but stopped long enough to take a good long look at Edward, as though trying to figure out which clothes to get for him. "I'm thinking that you'll need a belt...my daddy's a bit bigger than you, after all." She then walked out of the room in time to avoid the inevitable glare that came from Edward.

In no time, she was back with a few clothes, and she laid them out for Edward to put on, and she made sure to tell him exactly how to do so best so that they would fit as comfortably as possible. Ed rolled his eyes at all this helpful but annoying fussing on her part. True, she lived as a poor person in a log cabin, so she had to know how to utilize every single resource, including clothes that were too big, but he didn't have to be reminded of his size constantly, did he?

Finally, Sylvia left the room to give Ed some privacy, and he began the laborious process of getting himself dressed. He knew it shouldn't logically be this difficult, but his legs were unusually weak. He had in the past gone without using his legs for a few days in a stretch, like when he was sick, but he had never had a reaction like this to being able to walk again for the first time. This was something completely different. Apparently, there was a fine line between staying off one's legs, and not having legs to stay off of.

When he was done, he stopped to catch his breath for a few minutes by leaning against the door frame, and then he pushed open the door and headed into the room where Sylvia was waiting. He caught himself looking up and around at everything. It hadn't occurred to him until that moment that he had honestly never seen the rest of the house. He had been stuck in that bathtub the whole time.

"Edward," said Sylvia, briefly looking up from what she was doing to notice his presence in the room, "When did you first transform?"

Edward reached up and scratched the back of his head like he did whenever he wasn't quite sure of himself and looked at the ground. "Uh...I'm not really sure. I think I had several little transformations before my major one, because I was getting so thirsty each morning that I nearly died."

Sylvia nodded, but didn't make eye contact with him. "Yes, that makes sense that the spell would wear off slowly...but, when was your major transformation, when you actually STAYED in that form?"

"It was on my birthday," Ed said.

"Which was?" prodded Sylvia.

Ed rolled his eyes and sighed. Why was she so nosey? Oh well, he might as well satisfy her curiosity for the moment, or he'd never be able to find out what she was getting at. He hadn't really wanted to tell her much...but, well...what could he do about it? They were both in over their heads. "February third."

"I thought so," said Sylvia, "Look." She pointed to something on the wall, so Ed followed her gaze to find out what it was. It turned out to be some sort of leather wall hanging she kept there that had the various phases of the moon etched on it. Did she practice astrology? That was unscientific, for sure. Oh wait, living out here in the boondocks, she might need to pay attention to the phases of the moon in order to survive. That at least made sense.

"February third was the last full moon," said Sylvia, going into lecture mode, "That signifies completion. Today is the first new moon since your transformation, signifying a new beginning."

Ed put his hands on his ears to silence the sounds he was hearing. This wasn't just basic astronomy, this was astrology to the core, and it was unscientific! It hurt his brain to think about it, and he wanted her to stop. "Why do you believe this stuff? It's not scientific!" He turned away from her, but hadn't quite decided whether to leave the room or stay with Sylvia, so he just stood where he was for the moment. Sylvia leapt at the opportunity.

"Science doesn't explain everything, Edward." Even with his hands over his ears, he had heard that, so he spun around to face the girl, and was about to object, but she held up her hand, and he closed his mouth back up. Darn, that girl had a lot of sway over him! "I mean, just look at your own body! You have a fish tail one moment, and then legs the next. That's not scientifically possible."

Edward licked his lips and stared at the ground. Well, that one statement was true. He WAS some sort of scientific freak for being able to switch between having fins and legs, so she had scored a point there...but only one, mind you!

"And another thing..." Sylvia began again, "That necklace you wear...have you ever noticed anything weird that occurred in connection with it?" Edward reached up involuntarily and fingered the necklace. It happened to be his most prized possession. It must've been because his mother gave it to him. Yes, that had to be it. Edward slowly nodded when he realized he hadn't yet answered Sylvia's question. He hated to admit it, but the girl was right yet again...there were some weird occurrences in connection with this necklace, though those would surely be explained away easily by saying they were illusions or something. Yes, he was certain.

Sylvia managed to catch the reluctance in his nod, and she proceeded to shake her head while muttering, "Edward, Edward, Edward..." She then stood up and slowly walked toward him. Edward's eyes looked up from the ground to the approaching girl, and he gripped his necklace even tighter, like he was trying to protect it from something, though logically, there was really nothing to protect it from.

"Edward," she began again, "I've been studying myths and legends my whole life, and I've found merpeople to be one of the most fascinating topics of study." She stopped and crossed her arms in order to assume a position of superiority, and then continued. "One thing I've always found interesting is that merpeople frequently seem to be magical beings, and it's pretty ironic that the first merperson I ever meet just happens to not believe in magic."

Ed squinted his eyebrows together, and then spun around so that he wouldn't have to look at the girl. Of course he didn't believe in magic. It was unscientific, and anything that couldn't be proven scientifically wasn't real, right? No, he couldn't go with that theory anymore, since he HAD sprouted a tail just recently...though, one never knew, maybe there was a scientific explanation for that too...he shook his head. There wasn't likely to be ANY scientific explanation for that at the present time, so it would technically fall under the category of magic. Anything that had no explanation always fell under that category.

Sylvia walked up to Edward and placed a hand on his shoulder. "Also...you know how, according to legend, fairies and witches are oftentimes depicted with magic wands?" Edward solemnly nodded. Heck, she wasn't asking if he believed in these things, just if he knew about the legends. "Well," she continued, "You have a magic wand too, of sorts. That necklace. You use it to channel the energy from your own spirit through it. It's kind of like alchemy, in a way."

Ed spun around at this, and glared at the girl for a split second before yelling, "ALCHEMY AND MAGIC ARE NOT RELATED!" Without another word, he turned on his heels and stomped out of the room, making sure to slam the door behind him.

Meanwhile, Sylvia was left standing in the room in the same place that she'd been when Ed left, a hand on her face, and confusion in her eyes. "Geez," she said, "What did I say to make him so mad?"

**_Hope that you liked that. Leave me some reviews, and I'll try to update soon, heh. Suggestions are also, and always, welcome. There are so many plot points in this story that I haven't fully decided yet, so suggestions would still have a pretty big impact, heh. Hope to see you again soon!_**


	10. Chapter 10

**_Okay, back with another chapter. And yes, Winry, Roy, and Al finally get back into the scene. Heh, sorry for the long delay on what was happening with them ((you guys have been asking me about that for several chapters, hehe)) it's just that there was so much to talk about with Ed. Now I can finally get back to the rest of them. Oh, and just to avoid confusion, the first scene of this chapter takes place a few days in the past, and the next scene jumps back to the present. Hope that clears a few things up, heh._**

**_Disclaimer: Um...I don't want to use the dual Eds today...oh wait, this isn't the dual Eds story! Yeah! "No, use us!" said Ed one. Ed two remained silent, not sure of what to say, so I just shook my head and reminded them of how much they hated it when I DID use them in my stories, so they both shrugged and walked away, back to their own story._**

**_...Oh, and I don't own FullMetal Alchemist either._**

Winry sat on the couch, hugging her knees to her chest. She obscured her face by occasionally placing it on her knees, and letting out sobs big enough to shake her whole body. She was worried; anyone could tell that. Ed hadn't come back for several days, and she was getting more concerned with each passing day. This just wasn't like Ed. He normally would have at least made a phone call or something, to tell them where he was, and that they didn't have to worry about him...though they still would have, of course, just not as deeply as they were now.

She lifted her head at the sound of heavy footsteps coming into the room. That must've been Colonel Mustang coming back from his search. Had he found anything? She looked up into the man's face, hoping to find some answers. One look at the girl's tear-streaked face, and Roy hung his head. How could he face her? There were times when even people that appeared tough felt helpless, and Roy never felt strong in the presence of women, even though he pretended to.

"I'm sorry," he said, "We don't have any leads on FullMetal's whereabouts yet. I've got men scouting the entire area, so rest assured that the instant I find anything, I'll give you a report." Winry nodded her head, but didn't respond verbally. She didn't seem a bit consoled by the Colonel's words. Roy sighed, understanding why she was so hesitant to accept any comfort, and then sat down next to her on the couch, hoping that it wouldn't bother her that he did so.

He reached his hand over and squeezed her knee. "I understand your concerns. We're doing everything we can to find him." He paused and licked his lips. Should he tell her? Even he wasn't supposed to know, let alone a civilian like Winry. Ah, what the heck. "Miss Rockbell...I wasn't supposed to know this, but I somehow managed to find out that the Fuhrer had plans to send FullMetal to the front lines in the near future. Of course, that's almost like a death sentence. Maybe his disappearance now was providential...he has a better chance of survival now than he would in the Fuhrer's hands. Winry stared at the man in shock, not quite sure what to say. Roy looked at her for a moment, and then quickly cleared his throat, and said, "But you didn't hear that from me." Winry nodded. Of course she wouldn't tell anyone!

"Thank you," said Roy with a half-smile. He pushed himself up from the couch and stretched his arms over his head. "I guess that I'd better get back to the search. I'll let you know if anything comes up, okay?" He looked at Winry's face once more, and she nodded and returned a half-smile. Roy bowed to her, as he was always trying to be polite with the ladies, and then he left the room. He really hoped he could keep his promise to her.

Ed finally calmed down and came into the room where Sylvia was still waiting. She wasn't sure if she should apologize to him or not, though they probably actually both owed an apology to each other, but Ed didn't bother to waste the time dealing with apologies. "So, uh...how long, according to your...theory...will I have these legs?"

Sylvia blinked a couple times. He obviously didn't fully agree with the astrological concepts she had been talking about, but he wasn't totally bashing it this time either, and was being more open. That was a good start. "Um...I'm guessing that you'll have them until the next full moon...which is about two weeks away."

Edward stood and whistled. Two weeks? That wasn't very long. If he could somehow manage to get to the ocean before he transformed again, it would be a lot easier on him, and everyone else. He was just never meant to live on land, which was painful for him to think about, since everyone he knew and loved lived on land. He thrust his hands in his pockets and pawed at the floor with the toe of his shoe, as though he were thinking about something. "I guess that I need to get to town as soon as possible, so that I can try and catch a train. I've got to get to the ocean as soon as possible."

"Not without me, you're not!" Sylvia stood up suddenly, eyes adamant, and she crossed her arms over her chest to drive the message home even clearer. "You tend to attract trouble for yourself. You need someone to accompany you to keep you safe on your trip." Ed half-sighed, half-growled, and looked away from her. Why did everyone seem to think he couldn't take care of himself? He hadn't been able to talk Al into not going on their four year journey either, though he had been grateful for Al's constant presence. He really wished that people would let him grow up though. He could take care of himself.

Sylvia went over to the wall, where several things were hanging on some hooks placed there, and she grabbed a coat and a scarf which she bound around her head and neck. "Come on," she said to Edward, "There are no cars around here, since we're out in the middle of nowhere, but my neighbor has a carriage that he lets me use sometimes when I go to town." She caught the look on Edward's face, which was something along the lines of total disbelief at the lack of technology here, and she laughed in response. "Hey, a horse-drawn carriage is more capable of handling the rough terrain around here than a car would be." Edward nodded. Okay, fine, he'd accept that possibility, but it would still be kind of weird to him. He had only been on horse-drawn carriages a few times in the past few years, and the rest of the time, he had travelled by car or train.

Without further ado, Edward grabbed one of Sylvia's father's jackets and slipped it around himself. He'd take the buggy to town, and then find a phone, so he could call Al and Winry and tell them he was alright, and also try and get himself a ride on a train. He didn't have any money at the moment, and he didn't have his silver watch to prove his identity, since he had left that back in Rizenbul, but he was sure he'd find a way somehow. Heck, people were oftentimes willing to do him favors if he would repair things for them, especially in small towns like the one he was going to.

Back at the Rockbell residence, the phone rang. Al called that he would get it, and he rushed to answer the phone. He sighed and then picked up the receiver. Chances were good that it was going to just be the Colonel or one of the other military personnel again, trying to check up on them, and Winry really didn't need to deal with that at the moment. She was stressed enough as it was without them compounding it. "Hello, Rockbell residence," he said into the phone.

"Al? Al, is that you? It's so good to finally hear your voice again!" came the voice on the other end of the line.

Al gasped. He would know that voice anywhere, even if he wasn't used to hearing it get filtered through a phone line. "Brother? What- Where are you? Are you okay? Why did you disappear without warning?" His questions came in a rapid-fire sequence, one right after the other, giving no time to Ed to even attempt to answer.

While Al was busy with his rapid-fire questions, Winry happened to walk into the room. She had heard the phone ring, and she'd heard every word on Al's side of the conversation. Was it Ed on the other end of the line? Where was he? "Al, is that Ed?" Al got a bit disoriented, trying to keep up with both of the people that were talking to him, but he managed to nod to Winry. At this, she practically shrieked, and began rattling off a lot of questions that she wanted to ask Ed, though she wasn't the one on the phone, so poor Al was trying to simultaneously keep up with Ed while tuning Winry out, without being rude, if possible. He really couldn't blame her for her excitement though.

After a moment, Al once again asked, "Brother, where are you?"

Ed paused a moment, and then replied, "I...uh...don't remember what this town is called..." It sounded like he was about to find out, when suddenly, there was in the background the sound of a train conductor calling for people to board. Al listened as closely to what was being said as possible...anything that could give him any sort of clue as to his brother's whereabouts would be great. However, even that was interrupted by the sound of a girl's voice coming and telling Ed to get off the phone, so Ed quickly said goodbye and then hung up.

Al placed the receiver down on the cradle and sighed. That had been a very short conversation, sadly...but at least he now knew for sure that his brother was alive. That, at least, was some consolation. Winry walked up to the boy who was still standing hunched over the phone, with his hand still on the receiver, and she placed her hand on his shoulder in a comforting gesture. "Did you find out where he is?"

Al shook his head. "No, I didn't really...but I did get a clue, at least. He boarded a train, which is why he had to get off so suddenly, and I was able to hear some of the cities the conductor shouted. I didn't get to hear much, because some girl came and interrupted him, but I heard enough to conclude that he's going west."

"West?" said Winry, in a bit of a state of shock, "Why west? Is he trying to return to Central?"

Al shook his head. He didn't know much about the situation himself, but he at least knew that much. "He's either already past Central, or he's about to pass it. Either way, I don't think he's returning to the military headquarters. If anything, I think he might be running from it, though I'm not sure why."

Winry hung her head. She wasn't sure if she should tell Al what Colonel Mustang had told her. For all she knew, maybe Ed had found out about it somehow, and was running away to avoid being killed. She shook her head at her own thoughts. No, that wasn't like Ed either. He never ran away from responsibility, even if it meant certain death. Ed was anything but a shirker. There had to be another explanation.

Winry looked back up at Al. The boy had enough to worry about as it was. He didn't need to know this new piece of information...not just yet, anyway. "So, Al...what are you planning to do now?" Al gave her a look that said 'how did you know I was planning to do anything?' but it was easy for her to tell. She always knew what was going on in the minds of these two brothers. Well, she always knew how they were feeling, but she couldn't necessarily tell what they were thinking. That was rather a pain, because those two never seemed to be willing to spill their thoughts to her.

Al studied her face for a moment, a bit unsure as to what he should say. He knew he couldn't just leave and say nothing. His brother may have done that at times, but that wasn't the way he worked. He cleared his throat, causing Winry to raise an eyebrow as she waited for him to talk. "I..." he paused. He still wasn't sure what to say, but he knew he needed to say something, since Winry was standing there, waiting for him to say it. "I need to go and catch a westbound train, and try and catch up with Brother."

He moved to leave the room, but Winry positioned herself in his path so that he couldn't get past her. He hands went to her hips, and she sent a dagger-like glare. "How can you just leave me here right now when we don't even know where he is? Do you think I want to lose you too?" She tried to retrain herself, but before long, she had started crying, right in front of Al. She felt stupid for having to do that, but she couldn't help it. She just couldn't hold it back anymore.

Al came and wrapped his arms around her, and gently eased her face into his shoulder, encouraging her to cry it all out. He understood what it was like to feel separated and helpless from those you loved, so he didn't blame her for her reaction at all. This was the sort of reaction he'd probably have given if the tables were turned, but he had to go and find Ed, wherever he was. Ed had a habit of getting himself into trouble when Al wasn't around, so the chances of his arriving home safely very likely depended on Al's finding him and bringing him back home.

He continued to console Winry until she had finally calmed down sufficiently. She didn't have to say anything for Al to realize that she knew that he was still planning to go through with the plan to find Ed, and that she couldn't do anything about it. All he same, Al wanted her to know that he cared, and that he would most certainly be back, and with his brother if at all possible. He gave her one last hug, and then left the room. He had a lot of planning to do.

**_Hope that you liked that. Leave me some reviews, and tell me what you think. Suggestions and comments are especially welcome, as they give me clues on what I want to do with the story. There's still a part of the story I'm quite foggy on, so anything to help me clear that part up would be wonderful, hehe._**


	11. Chapter 11

**_Phew! Finally got this written up! It took me long enough, heh. Hope that you all like it, since it took awhile. I could definitely use some suggestions if you all have them too, since I'm trying to break my habit of rushing through stories too quickly._**

**_Disclaimer: I don't own anything. Well, I do own somethings, just not what I'm saying I don't own._**

Winry paced around the house nervously, walking back and forth, hands clasped behind her back. She'd been doing this for several hours, and she could almost swear that she could see a path starting to form on the floor in the place she'd been walking. Darn that Al, up and leaving her like that. Now she'd have two boys to worry about, and not just one. He should've let her at least come with him, if he thought he had to leave. Then she'd be able to keep an eye on him and make sure he stayed safe. But no, he'd insisted that she had to stay home and help Pinako tend the shop. Darn that Al. How dare he be right when she wanted to worry? It wasn't fair; she was the one that was always right, not him. But then, maybe he wouldn't be right after all…no, she wouldn't think like that. He'd better be right, because if anything happened to him, she was going to kill him for sure.

She was about to make her rounds for the hundredth time, when a familiar footstep made her snap her head up to identify the intruder. The sight of a dark blue uniform made her turn away again and hang her head. Darn, it would have to be Colonel Mustang, wouldn't it? Why did HE have to show up right NOW? He was probably going to ask her a bunch of questions that she really wasn't in the mood to answer, and if she hesitated, he'd probably find a way to get the answers out of her anyway. Darn it, and darn it again. Life just wasn't fair. It wasn't that she didn't trust Colonel Mustang, since he was probably the most trustworthy person in the entire military, besides Ed, of course, but she didn't trust the military in general. There was always the possibility that he'd just give in and do whatever the higher-ups commanded him to do, even if it wasn't in their best interest. She couldn't blame him for that, since he WAS in the military after all…but that's what she didn't like about the military. They generally didn't care about people.

"Miss Rockbell?" He took a couple steps into the room, hoping to obtain her attention, but failed. Winry's back remained facing in his direction, and she continued tracing the floor with her eyes. Colonel Mustang sighed and stopped walking. This was awkward for the both of them. "Winry?" he tried. At this, Winry slowly looked up at the man. She couldn't recall having ever been addressed by her first name by this man before. Those that did call her by her first name were generally family and close friends. The only person in the military besides Ed to have ever called her 'Winry' that she could remember was Hughes. Colonel Mustang had always been too formal. So why was he calling her by her first name now? What did he want?

Colonel Mustang's shoulders sagged and his face drew out into an elongated expression, obviously disturbed by the situation himself. "I'm sorry, I shouldn't have called you that without your permission." He closed his eyes and silently breathed for several moments. It was obvious that there was a lot more than he wanted to say, but he wasn't saying it. Maybe he wasn't trying to extract information from her…maybe he was trying to tell it!

Winry finally looked up and turned to fully face the Colonel. "Oh…it's okay if you want to call me Winry…I don't mind." She choked. What had happened in the past between them still hurt, but she couldn't dwell on it forever. He had just been following orders, after all. He wasn't a bad man. She knew that. "What was it that you wanted to tell me?"

Roy reached up and scratched the back of his head. He was nervous and unsure of himself. Surely that's what that meant. Okay, she would just have to wait for him to get around to talking. "Um…well…I'm not exactly sure what it is." He paused for a moment to gauge her reaction, and then took a deep breath, and continued on. "We've been questioning all the eyewitnesses of Edward's behavior in the last few days that he was here. A lot of the things they've been saying don't seem to add up logically. That doctor especially was able to provide us with the most information, though it was also the most confusing. Something about his symptoms just doesn't make sense."

Winry looked up at the man with a worried expression on her face and clasped her hands in front of her chest. What was he getting at? The black-haired man smirked slightly and then bowed his head apologetically. "I'm sorry, I'm not trying to worry you. I was just wondering if you happened to have something of his around here with a DNA sample on it. I have something that I need to investigate."

Winry's eyes went wide. A DNA sample? Why in the world would he need that? What did he think was wrong with Edward? Why wouldn't he tell her? She couldn't seem to get the logical and emotional sides of her brain to calm down and stop being at odds with each other, so she just continued standing in the same place, completely dumbfounded. Colonel Mustang looked at her with a nod of understanding. "I don't really know what I'm looking for…I guess that I'm just trying to reconcile the seeming contradictions from the witnesses. Don't worry, I won't allow the research to get into the hands of anyone but a few trusted subordinates. To tell the truth," he leaned forward so that he wouldn't have to talk very loud, and whispered into her ear, "I'm trying to protect him from the higher-ups." He quickly stood back up. "But remember, you didn't hear that from me."

Winry coughed. Colonel Mustang was telling her a lot lately that could get himself in trouble. Why was he putting himself on the line for her sake? Something about this just didn't click. Should she trust him and provide him what he asked for, or should she try to deny his request? She once again looked up into his eyes, catching the pleading look emanating from them. That wasn't just any look. He was serious, and very, very concerned for them. She could sense that. It may go against her logical side, but she figured that she'd probably better at least give him the benefit of the doubt.

Without saying a word, Winry went and began rummaging around through dressers and cabinets and closets trying to find something. At last, when she was going through Edward's suitcase, she breathed a sigh of relief when she finally pulled out Edward's hairbrush. There were still a few strands of hair left on it. She handed the brush to Colonel Mustang. "Will this work?"

Roy took the brush from Winry's outstretched hand and smiled. "Thank you, Winry…I'm sure that this'll give us some clues as to what was going on with FullMetal in the last few days he was here. There may still be a few living cells in the roots of the hair, after all…at least…that's what we're hoping. Even so, I'm sure that this will be invaluable to us. Thank you for trusting us." With that, he bowed, and then left the room, leaving Winry to stare on in amazement. She had never seen this side of Colonel Mustang before. He had always acted like a jerk according to Ed, or at least would act high and mighty or perverted in some way. She had never known him to suddenly become so concerned for Ed's welfare…almost like a fatherly figure. There must've been a side to him that one rarely ever got to see, because he kept it tightly hidden, that really cared deeply for the boy. He apparently cared so much that he was willing to risk telling her information that he shouldn't just to try and help him. That in and of itself was pretty amazing.

* * *

Al walked up to the lady at the ticket booth. He squirmed a bit under his clothes, not fully sure what he should say…but then, he wasn't that social as it was. He would just have to get this done and over with. He looked up at the woman, his gray eyes connecting with her blue ones, and said, "Um, hi…I need a ticket that will take me as far west as the line will go." He squirmed again. That had sounded a bit awkward. That lady must've thought he was an idiot. 

In response, the lady raised an eye brow and looked down at the boy before her. "The end of the line? Why, are you going to Creata?" The two stared at each other in silence for a moment. At that point in time, travel between Amestris and Creata wasn't much heard of, since the relations between the two countries left a little to be desired. Oh, he wouldn't get in trouble for trying to cross the border if he had all his proper paperwork with him, it just wasn't exactly what the average person dreamed of doing at this point in time.

"Heh," Al stifled a laugh as he hung his head. "I don't really know if I'm going that far or not…I'm trying to catch up with someone, and I don't know how far they're going." There, he'd said it. Had he said too much? This was just a lady at a ticket booth though…what could the harm be in telling her that much? He hadn't said who he was chasing, after all. He looked back up to see if she was still looking at him with that puzzled expression of hers, only to find her actually going through the process of getting him what he'd asked for. Okay, maybe she DID understand…even though it was a slightly unusual request. Before long, she'd handed him the ticket and taken his money, and Al took his suitcase and boarded the train. Now if only this train could go faster than the one his brother was on, he would have it made.

* * *

Ed lazily leaned on Sylvia's shoulder, completely unaware that he was doing so, and was periodically letting out mild snoring sounds. As awkward as Sylvia felt from this gesture, there was nothing that she could do to get herself out of it. She felt the need to sleep too, but she couldn't bring herself to sleep right next to Edward like this, though she knew she wouldn't be able to cheat sleep for long. How he was able to give in to his desire for sleep so easily was beyond her. Apparently he could sleep anywhere; that or he was used to sleeping on trains. Maybe it was both, for all she knew. 

She leaned back into her seat and sighed, knowing that she couldn't stay awake for much longer, as she was periodically slipping in and out of consciousness. Just then, she heard Ed moan, so she turned her attention towards him. Apparently, he had gotten so relaxed, that he was even beginning to drool. That did it. That was the last straw. She was NOT going to allow some guy to drool on her shoulder! She grabbed Ed's braid and gave it a sharp yank while shouting, "Ed, wake up, you lazy thing!"

Ed jumped up and looked around nervously, wondering what had just happened. It didn't take too long for his thoughts to grow coherent, however, and he turned and glared at Sylvia for having disturbed such a peaceful sleep as he had been having. Sylvia just returned the stare and shrugged. "Next time, don't drool on me, and maybe I'll let you sleep longer."

Ed turned away and crossed his arms. "I was not drooling."

"Sure you weren't," said Sylvia, rolling her eyes and letting out a sigh of disgust. She then tugged at her now soggy sleeve to make it visible to the boy. "Then what is this?" Ed looked at the soggy spot on the extended sleeve without response for a moment, and then gave a mild shrug, mumbling something about her sweating pretty hard. Sylvia once again rolled her eyes. This boy just wouldn't own up to anything he did that was less than manly, would he?

The two stared into space in silence for several minutes, one being too tired to speak, the other feeling too awkward to, especially since he'd just been accused of drooling on a girl's shoulder. All at once, their thoughts were interrupted when they suddenly noticed that the train began slowing down as they were passing through a town that was not supposed to be one of the stops along the way. "What's going on here?" said Ed, to no one in particular.

Sylvia shrugged. "I don't know, you're the train veteran." Ed turned and gave her a split second glare, and then turned to stand up. He had the tendency to think aloud at times, and he was a bit unaccustomed to people actually commenting on the things he said when he did so. At least Al knew when to speak and when to keep his mouth shut. Heck, even Winry understood the concept somewhat. Apparently, that was one major difference between the two girls: One had tact, and the other didn't.

Ed had made his way over to the door of the car and had placed his hand on it. He'd find someone to ask about why the train was slowing down and appearing to stop here. Heck, maybe it really wasn't that big of a deal…but if he knew trains, and he was sure that he did after all the experience he'd had with them in the past, there was mostly likely something up. Before he even got the chance to open the door, however, the door opened itself, and in stepped the conductor. The man gave Ed a puzzled glance for having been standing so close to the door, and then he brushed right by as if Ed hadn't been standing there at all.

The conductor made his way to the center of the car, planted himself in a good position, and then raised his hands to his mouth to make his voice carry farther. Everyone turned to look at him, wondering if he'd have an answer to the unspoken question they were all asking. "Attention, everyone," he said, "As you may have already noticed, we are slowing down the train at an unexpected stop. There is no cause for panic. We are experiencing some technical difficulties, so we will have to delay our departure a few days longer than anticipated. Upon stopping, you will be provided room and board for the time you are delayed here as well as return tickets to get back on the train as soon as we are ready to depart again. We sincerely apologize for this inconvenience." Without saying another word, the conductor turned and left through the other door of the car, probably to give the same message to the next car.

Ed sighed and relaxed his shoulders almost into a slumping-over position, and then went and plopped back down in the seat beside Sylvia, crossing his arms as he did so. Sylvia turned to him, and even though she figured that she probably knew the answer, she asked him what was wrong. Ed sighed again and glanced around the car a moment before answering. "I probably shouldn't say here." He glanced around for another minute, and then finally turned to face Sylvia, lowering his voice to keep the other passengers from hearing him. "The only reason they would stop the train and delay it for a few days is because the situation got so dangerous it was life threatening." He paused another moment, then gulped, and said, "That, or they were ordered to by someone, for some reason."

Sylvia stared at the boy for a long time, not quite sure what to say. He apparently really was a train veteran, just like she had originally thought. How could he have figured that all out otherwise? She tore her eyes away from him and looked out the window at the ever-slowing landscape rushing past. Either way, both of those options didn't sound pleasant. Which one was it, anyway? Edward had seemed quite troubled by the whole ordeal…maybe there was more to this situation than he was telling her, but he was trying to avoid getting her mixed up in too big of an affair. That seemed like the kind of thing he would do.

Finally, the train stopped. Edward and Sylvia grabbed their baggage and their return tickets, and made their way to the hotel that was being provided for those unfortunate enough to have been aboard this particular train. As they were walking, Sylvia noticed that Edward seemed distant, as if his mind was a million miles from where he was. She took a step towards him and casually bumped his shoulder, hoping that this gesture would get him to speak up, rather than hold it all inside. Edward looked up into Sylvia's face, and apparently caught the concerned look she was giving, because he responded with a nervous chuckle and then turned to look at the ground again. It appeared that he wasn't going to be able to hide his feelings from her.

"There were an awful lot of people on that train to fit into one little hotel," he said. Sylvia nodded, and prodded him to keep talking. She couldn't figure out what he was getting at, but she wanted to hear it all the same. "What if they make single people…like us…share a room with someone else?" On an impulse, both of them stopped walking, though they weren't exactly sure why. Sylvia turned to once again look into Edward's face, but his face was still facing down towards the ground. "What if…What if we're kept here so long…that I transform again?"

Suddenly, Sylvia understood. She couldn't blame him for worrying about that, since not everyone would be as receptive to him as she had been. If anyone else caught him, he might end up in a lab or something. Without any sort of warning, she ran up to the boy and threw her arms around him. She hadn't bothered to obtain permission to do this, but she had somehow suspected that he just needed the encouragement all the same, whether he tried to object or not. "Don't worry, Edward," she said, "I'm sure that everything will work out somehow. We'll find a way…so don't worry, alright?" Edward nodded silently, though it was still quite obvious that he was concerned.

Finally, the two arrived at the hotel, and were given the keys to their rooms. Fortunately, they were only a few doors apart, so they'd still be able to keep a fairly good eye on each other, and make sure that they both stayed safe. They made their way up to the third floor, and looked around. Hmmm…390, and the numbers were going down. That meant that they would find Edward's room first. They walked a few yards, and were soon standing in front of room 387. Sylvia's room, 382, would only be a few doors away from here.

Edward put his key into the doorknob, and turned it. He took a deep breath, and slowly opened the door, hoping that there wouldn't already be someone else in here. The man at the front desk hadn't said anything about roommates…but still, you never knew. He placed the key back into his pocket, and he and Sylvia cautiously stepped into the room and looked around. There were no signs of anyone else having occupied this room recently, but still, he gulped. There were two beds.

**_Thanks for reading. I would appreciate any kind of feedback, especially if you have comments, questions, or suggestions for what you would like to see. Anything would be most helpful. Thank you, and hope to see you around again soon!_**


	12. Chapter 12

**_Heh, this one's a long chapter. Took me ages to type up. Um, can't take time to say much, cause I'm almost out of time. Enjoy!_**

**_Disclaimer: Yep, it's a disclaimer alright._**

Al leaned further back into his train seat and turned to stare out then window. Everything was passing by in a sort of blue, or maybe that was just the reflection of his thoughts. He knew, logically, that the things closer to the train would appear to pass by faster than the ones father away, but right now, everything seemed blurry. Where was his brother, and why had he suddenly run away from them like that? That just wasn't like Ed to do so without any sort of warning. Al sighed and allowed his chin to rest on his fist. Would they ever see each other again?

The sound of someone clearing their throat brought Al's attention back to the present. He looked up from the window and saw a grey-bearded man with rugged looking clothes standing in the aisle, next to his seat. As an automatic reaction, Al tensed up for a brief second at the sight of the man. His logic told him that there was really nothing to be afraid of, but he couldn't shake the images of all the similarly dressed men he had previously met that were all drunk.

The man smiled gently at Al, and then motioned towards the seat opposite from him. "Is this seat taken?" Hmmm…The man didn't sound drunk, though one had to wonder why he was just now finding himself a seat. Al shook his head and invited the man to sit down in the seat facing him. The man gratefully sat down and stretched his legs out in front of him. "I hope I'm not making you nervous by sitting here."

"Um…no…?" Al lied. Of course he was nervous; he always was when he had to meet someone that he didn't click with immediately, but he wasn't about to tell this man that. One thing that Al was good at was pretending not to be nervous around people when he really was. Heck, even he himself wasn't aware that he did that.

Al put his hands in his lap and began to fidget with his fingers. Before long, he was once again looking out the window at the passing scenery, which allowed him to not have to look at the man, and he was swinging his legs somewhat randomly. The man cocked an eyebrow at this behavior and said, "You look nervous to me."

"I'm…not nervous," Al said, bringing his face away from the window and dropping his gaze to the floor in the aisle in the middle of the car. It was rare when someone could ever see through Al's attempts to look more outspoken or stronger than he actually was. Maybe this man was one of those rare people of legend that actually had a brain. His brother had told him about smart people once, but said that he had yet to find one. Apparently, when Ed had first met Colonel Mustang, he thought that he had finally found one of these people, but soon came to the realization that he had been gravely mistaken.

The man chuckled a bit, and then finally spoke. "I suppose having an old man like me suddenly come and sit down next to you would make just about anyone nervous." The man paused for a moment, and Al finally raised his head and looked into the man's eyes. He was seeming less and less threatening to him as he talked…so maybe this guy wasn't so bad. Maybe.

The man spoke again. "You just looked like you'd be an interesting young man to talk to…but I can leave if you'd prefer." The old man put his hand next to his lap and leaned forward, obviously about to stand. Al opened his mouth to say something, and then changed his mind and snapped it back shut. He reached out and touched the old man's hand. At this, the man looked up at him, and Al timidly smiled.

"Please stay. I wasn't trying to drive you off. I always get nervous around new people."

The man chuckled and sat back in his seat. "But you said that you weren't nervous." Al twitched and swung his legs again before he caught the twinkle in the man's eye. Heh, this man had known all along that Al was nervous. He'd seen right through his smokescreen. Yep, this man had at least half a brain, Al would have to give him that.

Al cleared his throat to break the monotony of the silence and decided to start a conversation. "So…where are you headed?" The man leaned back into his seat and sighed, shaking his head. Al raised an eyebrow at this, but was patient enough to wait for the man's response, whatever it was.

The man turned and looked out the window, and Al followed suit, having nothing better to do. After a moment of silence, the man finally said, "May I ask where you're going first?"

This startled Al out of his trance, and he looked away from the window to the man, then back to the window, and back to the man. "Well, um," he began as he started twiddling his thumbs in nervousness once again, "I'm not going anywhere, really," That heightened the nervousness level, so he proceeded to biting his nails. "I'm looking for someone actually." Even more nervous, he started to pick at his nails and peel them off like he had never heard of nail clippers.

The man smiled a bit, and then said, "I understand. That's actually what I'm doing as well." He paused, and then added, "And quit being so nervous; you're ruining your nails." Al suddenly being self-conscious about his hands and promptly thrust them in his lap where they would quit causing trouble. The man couldn't help himself and chuckled again while shaking his head. Al was pretty cute, no matter how you looked at him.

The man got his bearings about himself once again, and turned to look at Al. He cleared his throat and said, "Would it be too nosy of me to ask who you're looking for?" Al looked at the man for a brief second and then quickly broke eye contact. He started to allow his legs to kick the air again, and even brought his hand up to his mouth, about to bite his nails, but he caught himself and put his hand back in his lap. Yep, he was nervous again, but it was understandable as to why. He wasn't sure how much he should tell to some random stranger, though he really did want to get it off his chest. Maybe a few vague details wouldn't hurt anything. He once again turned and looked into the man's eyes. "Um, well…" he hesitated, "I'm looking for my brother, actually. He started getting sick and acting strange a couple weeks ago, and then he just up and disappeared without warning."

The man brought his hand up to his chin and began stroking it in a thinking gesture. "Is that so? I'd thought as much." Getting an inquisitive look from Al, the man chuckled, dropped his hand into his lap, and leaned back into his seat. A slight smile crossed his face, and he looked directly into Al's eyes. "Are you and your brother related? I mean…blood related?"

Al gave the man a strange look. He had never been asked that question before, since anyone could tell by looking at the two boys side by side that they were both from the same family. All the same, what did them being related have to do with Ed's running away? Al returned to look at the old man and cautiously nodded while saying, "Um…yes…?"

The man chuckled again as Al's confusion and nervousness began to show through again. He then turned and glanced around the car, leaving Al to wonder what the man was looking for. The man finally turned back to face Al and his smile vanished. "It's pretty obvious to me why your brother vanished so suddenly and without warning." He put his hands outside of his lap and pushed himself up from his seat. "Come," he made a gesture with his hand, begging Al to follow, "We'll talk between cars to keep people from listening in. You really need to hear this."

Al stared at the man in silence and didn't move a muscle. This was getting weirder and weirder, and he was seriously starting to get creeped out. How could a complete stranger know something about the Elric brothers that they themselves didn't know? The old man walked over to the door and grabbed the latch, and then turned around and once again motioned for Al to follow him. Something in the man's eyes convinced Al that he was indeed serious and that he should at least give the man a fair hearing. With that, he finally pushed himself up and made his way out the door after the man.

Once outside, he quickly searched for something to grab onto. Yes, that railing would do the trick. Al grabbed a hold of the railing and leaned against it as if afraid that the train would buck him off at any given moment. The wind whipped his hair into his face, making it difficult to see. He shook his head and looked around for the old man, finding him standing just several feet away.

"Are you okay?" shouted the man above the noise of the wind.

"I'm fine," Al shouted back, shivering a bit from the effects of the wind. They needed to get this done and over with so that he could go back inside where it was comfortable. "What did you want to tell me?"

The man got a faraway look in his eyes as he gazed out at the rolling scenery in the distance, almost as if he didn't want to say, or perhaps just didn't know how. The man bent at his waist and leaned onto the railing, refusing to look at Al. He looked a bit troubled.

"Son," the man said, finally turning to face the boy, "You have the ocean in your eyes."

Colonel Mustang pounded frantically on the door. "Winry…Miss Rockbell…please open up! It's me, Colonel Mustang!" He continued pounding on the door until he finally heard a latch turn and the door swung open, revealing a girl with messy blond hair and dark circles under her eyes. Roy grimaced. He had obviously woken the poor girl up since he had come incredibly early, but that wouldn't be helped. This was urgent.

"I am so sorry for disturbing your rest, Miss Rockbell, but I have some information that I thought might be of interest to you, and it would be best if I were to tell you as soon as soon as possible." Winry nodded her understanding and motioned for Roy to come in, all the while trying to stifle a yawn that was making an attempt to contort her fact into an unbecoming expression. Roy nodded in acknowledgement and graciously followed the girl inside.

After quickly preparing some coffee for both Roy and herself, Winry joined the Colonel in the living room. Roy reached into the leather tote bad he had brought with him and pulled out a manila folder. He bounced it on his knee a couple times as though trying to collect his thoughts, and then looked at Winry. "Miss Rockbell…That hairbrush that you gave me…did Alphonse ever use it?"

Winry hadn't quite expected to be asked a question like that, but it wasn't out of the ordinary. She sat back in her seat and placed her hand across her forehead while closing her eyes, just trying to visualize whether Al had ever used that hairbrush himself. After a few moments, she opened her eyes and nodded. "Come to think of it, yes, Al used that brush awhile ago when he misplaced his own…but that was awhile ago…"

"Does Fullmetal ever clean out his brush?"

Winry laughed, "Not often."

Roy smirked. "I suspected as much. We'd found a few brown hairs in the brush and wondered if they were his." He reached into his manila folder and pulled out three sheets of paper that all had some sort of illustrations on them, and he placed them one by one down on the coffee table, facing Winry. "Now, Miss Rockbell, this is a depiction of a typical strand of human DNA." He then pointed to the next picture, which looked only a tiny bit different. "This is Alphonse's." Then he pointed to the third, which bore no resemblance to the first whatsoever. "This is Edward's."

Winry's mouth dropped open and she slowly raised her head up to look into the Colonel's face. "What are you saying?" She found herself struggling to put one word in front of the other, and her hands began forming into fists. "Are you trying to say that-that they're not human?"

Roy placed a gentle hand n Winry's shoulder in an attempt to calm the girl down and said, "I'm just an alchemist, not a geneticist…but there does seem to be something odd about their DNA, especially Edward's."

Winry felt tears begin to prick at her eyes, but she blinked them away. It was silly to cry when she didn't even know what she was crying about. "Tell me about it."

"Well," said Roy, crossing his legs and lacing his fingers over his knee, "Judging by the appearance of Edward's DNA, we decided to perform some experiments on his hair in relation to its reaction to water."

"Water?"

"Yes, water. The first thing we did was take samples of hair from several people with normal DNA and submerse the samples in a solution of salt water. As can be expected, the water made the hair weak and easy to break, and the salt dried out the hair."

Winry nodded. Yes, that was to be expected with normal human hair. She'd used enough fancy hair care products to figure that out. "So what about the boys' hair?"

"Ah, well now, that was interesting." Roy rubbed his face as he meditated on how to phrase his thoughts. "Alphonse's hair, when put to the same test…didn't become weaker, but stronger. The salt didn't even dry out his hair…it looked more like…his hair absorbed it."

"Absorbed the salt?"

"Yes, absorbed it…like it needed it."

Winry put her hand on her forehead again and closed her eyes. Wasn't that a bit odd that Al's hair would behave differently than a normal person's? She didn't like thinking that there might be something odd about those boys…but then, the evidence was stacking up against thinking any other way. She finally dared to open her eyes and look at the Colonel again. She cleared her throat. "I'm almost afraid to ask…but what happened with Ed's hair?"

Roy responded by clearing his throat and looking around uneasily. He gave Winry a weak smile, and then began to speak. "His hair…did everything Alphonse's did…and then it somehow…cam to life. It started moving around on its own."

"Come in," said Edward in response to the knock on his door. If it were Sylvia, all she'd have to do was use the extra key he had gotten for her. He had figured that it would be better to play it safe and make it possible for her to enter his room without his help in case he were to transform at an odd time. The door opened and Sylvia stepped in to see Edward concentrating intensely on his hands. A ball of light was slowly beginning to take shape in between them.

"What are you doing?"

Edward blinked and the ball of light disappeared. He turned to look at Sylvia, slightly startled out of his trance. "Oh…I was just practicing."

"Practicing what?"

"To see if I could transform at will."

Sylvia gave an amused smile. "So, you finally believe in magic?"

Edward glared at her. "No, of course not!"

"Then what do you call that?"

Edward sighed and rubbed his temples. "I don't believe in magic, but it's obvious that I'm not human. I don't understand these new powers, but there's got to be a logical explanation for them. Until then, I should get accustomed to them so that I don't find myself at a disadvantage."

Sylvia nodded and stepped into the room. Ed had already claimed one of the beds, as could be expected, since this was his room. The other bed was as yet unoccupied, so Sylvia went and sat on the edge of that bed and stared at Edward. Contrary to the touch exterior he put on, she could tell that inwardly he was scared and hadn't a clue as to what was happening to him. The poor guy had obviously never been through anything like this before, especially being raised as a human being in a completely landlocked country. He had never been prepared for this.

Edward suddenly reached both hands up to the sides of his head and tried to rub at them. "Ouch! Stupid pain keeps coming back!"

Sylvia raised an eyebrow. "Pain? There?"

"Yeah, it burns."

"Lemme look." She got up from her perch and walked over to Edward. In spite of his objections, she placed her hand on the side of his head and brushed the hair that was behind his ears aside. When she saw the swollen redness, she frowned. "It looks like your gills are inflamed, Edward."

Ed practically choked. "Gills? I don't have gills! Gills are for fish!"

Sylvia gave the boy a much needed glare and said, "Of course you have gills, dummy, how do you think you're able to breathe underwater?"

Edward's eyes opened wide. He had apparently never thought of that before. Sure, he had always had 'ridges' behind his ears, which was why his mother always let him grow his hair long…to cover them up. They had just opened up for the first time on his birthday, but it had never crossed his mind that he had used them to breathe with. What was even stranger though was the fact that he still had these ridges…gills…while he was in human form. Did that mean that he had never been truly human?

Edward turned to look at Sylvia. "What should I do to calm down my…gills?"

"They need water." She walked towards the bathroom and made a motion with her hand, beckoning him to follow. "I'll help you."

The boy hung his head and sighed. It was kind of embarrassing to always have to rely on her help, but she was the kind of person who would not take 'no' for an answer. The best thing to do would be to just follow her and see if she could make his gills feel any better.

"I'm a fisherman, and I've spent quite a bit of time fishing off the shores of Creata." The old man paused and turned to see if Al was listening and then he went on with his story. "You may not believe me, but any fisherman or sailor worth his title knows it's true. There are people that live in the sea. People that have the capacity to spend their entire lives living underwater."

Al choked a bit, but tried to hide the reaction. He didn't want to hurt the old man's feeling because he seemed really nice, but he was starting to come off as a bit of a lunatic. I mean, sea people, really? Al forced a smile, thanked the old man, and was about to head back inside when the man grabbed Al's arm and wouldn't let him go. Al's pulse rate quickened at the sudden touch.

"I know you don't believe me," said the old man, "This is a lot of information to take in at once," The man paused and loosened his grip on Al's arm. Al didn't take the opportunity to run, since the old man didn't seem threatening to him, just kind of weird. The man turned to look at him again and said, "You seem better adapted to the land than the other sea people I've met…are you a half breed?" Al kept his mouth shut and didn't answer. How does one answer a question like that, anyway? The old man noticed Al's reaction and sighed. "Come now, don't tell me that you don't even have any gills behind your ears."

Al's mouth dropped open and his hand involuntarily reached up to touch the side of his head. Surely, those were just ridges…just a birth defect, right? He couldn't possibly be a creature from the sea, as intriguing as that thought was. The old man smiled gently at the perplexed boy and placed a hand on his shoulder. "I can see in your eyes that you want to believe what I'm telling you, but you're afraid to." Yes, that was true. "You brother is no doubt going west to get to the ocean, but he was likely stopped some miles from here. They're stopping random trains at that point." That could possibly be true. He was sure it was possible to verify, at least. "And I'm guessing that your name is…Alphonse Elric?"

Al stumbled back a few steps and felt his back smack into the door that led back to his car. His pulse rate once again began to go up. This was just getting too creepy. How did he know so much?

"I'm sorry," said the man, walking towards the frightened boy, "I didn't mean to scare you. I've just been trying to find the two of you for quite some time because I had suspected that you were both sea people. Now that I've finally met you, I've confirmed my suspicion."

"What-" Al choked on his own words, and his tongue refused to cooperate, "What do you want with us?"

The man once again placed his hand on Al's shoulder, and Al closed his eyes and turned away so that he wouldn't have to look at the man. The man frowned and put his finger under Al's chin to force Al to look into his face. "I just want to help you. After all the time I've spent getting to know the people of the sea, I've developed a deep fondness for them."

Al continued staring into the man's face, not like he had much say in the matter what with his chin being propped up, and tears began forming in his eyes. "Help us with what?"

The man let go of Al's chin since Al finally looked like he wasn't going to run off any second, and he sighed. He leaned once again on the railing and let the wind blow his hair around. "The military is looking for you…both of you. The higher-ups have known about this all along, even without your knowledge. Your brother's disappearance caused quite a stir because of that, and now the military is even going so far as to stop trains to find their runaway lab rat."

Al gasped. This all still sounded unbelievable, but he felt something deep down inside of him, a feeling that only surfaced when he was in denial of the truth. Teas welled up in his eyes again from the overpowering emotions, but he managed to blink them away. "How…How do you know all this?"

"I've been tapping into military broadcasts."

Right, that would make sense if this man was really trying to help them, but he couldn't shake the nervousness in spite of what his intuition told him. No matter what, he was still going to be afraid, but that needn't stop him from being brave. He planted his feet firmly on the floor and looked the man squarely in the eye. "What should I do?"

The man finally smiled again at seeing the determination in Al's eyes. He patted Al on the back and said, "You need to find your brother before this train is stopped."

"How do I do that? Is he on the train?"

"No, I think he's still in the town where all the trains are being stopped, because the military hasn't caught him yet."

"Then how can I-"

"You're going to have to beat this train to that town, or else they might catch you when they stop the train."

Al turned and once again gazed out over the blurred scenery. How was he supposed to beat a fast-moving train to the specified town where Ed was hiding? Even if he could pull that off, how would he find Ed in that town in a timely manner?

The man seemed to know what Al was thinking, and he reached into his pocked and pulled out what looked like a clamshell. "This was given to me a lot time ago by the sea people as a way to detect their presence. It will help you find your brother." Al took the shell from the man and looked at it, and then back at the man. He could feel a sort of living energy emanating from the shell, which he guessed was due to his biology, if this man was indeed telling the truth. Al knew that he was telling the truth, but it was easier to feign denial for a little while. He noticed a small eye hook in the top of the shell that made it look like it was capable of being hung from a chain. Reaching into his pocket, he found an old leather tie that he had picked up from somewhere, and threaded it through the eye hook. Now he could hand it around his neck and not worry about losing it.

"And in regards to how you're supposed to beat the train," said the man, who turned to point in a slightly northwesterly direction, "We're going to be crossing over a river over there very soon. The river takes a direct route to the town in question while the train has to go around mountains, lakes, and other things. If you dove into the river while the train was crossing over, you could easily beat the train there."

Al placed his hand on his chin and thought. He had never tried any sort of long distance swimming before, and he honestly wasn't sure how long he would last at it. Since he had to keep coming up for air, he wasn't so sure that he could continue swimming when he got tired and expect not to drown.

The man noticed Al's concerned look, and he asked, "Don't you know how to swim?" Al confirmed that he did, so the man asked again, "Are your gills open…or are they sealed shut?"

Al cringed. It still creeped him out to think of those ridges he had as gills, though that was probably what they were, even though they weren't in the least bit functional. "They're sealed shut. I can't use them."

The man sighed and once again pulled something out of his pocket. "The only way that you'll be able to make it in time to save the both of you is to have them open, so I guess we'll have to open them." The man pushed a button on the thing he was holding, and suddenly a small knife blade popped out. Al's eyes widened in horror. No way, he wasn't seriously going to…

"I'm sorry, Alphonse, but this is a life and death matter. If I don't open your gills, you'll both soon be captured, tortured, and eventually killed. Please just cooperate and let me do this, we don't have much time." Al gulped and opened and closed his hands a few times in anticipation of the pain that that would cause. A tear finally managed to escape and roll down his cheek. Was he afraid right then? Heck, yeah, but he wasn't about to let that fear put his brother in danger. Al finally gave the old man his consent, and the old man offered a light smile. "Good." He moved closer and brought the knife up to the side of Al's head. "This will only take a minute."

After a few minutes were past, Al sat on the floor of the place he and the man were still positioned between cars. His head was throbbing from the pain of the operation he had just gone through and he was having overwhelming spells of dizziness and nausea. He felt like his head was going to explode. A cold, wet feeling trickled down the side of his head, and he realized that he must've been bleeding heavily right then. The water ought to take care of the blood, but he hoped that he'd be able to retain consciousness from all the blood loss.

"It's almost time," said the old man, pointing off in the distance to the now visible river. "Let me help you get on top of the car. It'll be a better place to jump from than down here."

Al once again shivered and felt a sense of dread creep through him. He didn't mind high places, but he didn't particularly like jumping from high places. The thought of having to do it from a fast-moving train was too unnerving. The old man reached out his hand and beckoned for Al to take it, which he did. The two of them carefully made their way up to the top of the care where the wind was even more severe. Any minute now, that river would be upon them, and he would have to jump for it.

Just before they reached the bridge, the man turned to look at Al. "Son…if you perchance see my daughter on the way to your destination, would you tell her that I love her and will return home once I know that you two are safe?"

Al nodded. "I'll tell her if I see her. What's her name?"

"Sylvia."

Al braced himself as the train began to roll over the bridge. In just a moment, he was going to have to jump all that way down into the water below. He sure hoped that there was enough water there to break his fall. Al took one last deep breath, just in case he needed it, and began to direct his center of gravity so that it would be ready to jump when he needed to. The man tapped Al's back. "It was nice meeting you, son, I hope we get to meet again someday." He paused. "Now, get ready." Al tensed and waited for the go ahead. "Go!" Al leapt with all his might over the side of the bridge. There was no turning back now. He could only hope that everything went as planned.

**_Hope you liked that, please leave me some reviews, and I'll try to update soon. Take care!_**


	13. Chapter 13

**_Sorry that I took so long to update. My life's kind of been topsy turvey lately, but I hope that you can all forgive me for that, heh. At least I get these chapters out at all in spite of it. Anyway, I hope that you all enjoy this chapter._**

**_Disclaimer: _**Oh how I **WISH** I owned them...but only when I astral travel... and then they argue about whether I own them or not. ((Thanks to Gaia's Song for the disclaimer.))

"Stupid Edward," Winry ranted as she walked down the road toward the train station. She kicked a pebble out of her path in a desperate need to take her frustration out on something. "Stupid Alphonse too. They're both idiots, running around the country, completely oblivious to what's happening." She stopped and straightened her bag strap that was starting to dig into her shoulder and let out a sigh. "Those two are in over their heads. I hope that they'll be alright until I can find them."

The rest of the walk to the station was for the most part quiet, except for the sound of her feet crunching against the gravel road. Somehow, talking to herself for too long made her nervous, as she was sure she'd get funny looks from passers by if they overheard her. It was better in her opinion to keep her thoughts inside her head while out in public.

At last she arrived at the station and she walked up to the ticket booth. Winry reached into her pocket and pulled out a picture she had brought with her of Edward and Alphonse and showed it to the lady behind the counter. "Did you see this boy come by the other day?" she asked as she pointed to Al.

The woman leaned forward and squinted as though trying to recall whether she had or not and then slowly shook her head. "I'm…not sure…I see a lot of faces each day. Do you know what he was wearing then?"

Winry scratched her chin in contemplation for a brief moment as she tried to remember what it was that Al had on that last day. Suddenly it clicked. As soon as Ed had disappeared, Al had pretty much taken over everything related to his brother since he had missed him so much. He had even been sleeping in Ed's bed. Naturally, in that state of mind, the clothes he last wore would have been Edward's particularly since Ed hadn't taken any of his clothes with him. Strange.

"The last time I saw him," said Winry, "I'm pretty sure he was wearing black clothes, white gloves, and a red overcoat."

The ticket lady's eyes rolled, back into her head as she thought, and soon a smile spread across her face. Oh yes, she remembered. Who could forget THAT getup? "I do seem to remember a boy dressed like that, actually. What about him?"

Winry could barely contain her excitement. Was it too much to hope that this woman would remember more? She prayed not. "Where did he go? Do you remember?"

"Heh," the woman shook her head and let out a slight chuckle, "That was another weird thing about him. He'd asked to go as far west as the line would take him."

Hmm…Al had said something about Ed going west. It made sense in that case that he'd buy a ticket to take him to the end of the line in the hopes that he'd catch up with Ed. Winry turned and looked up at the lady. "Give me the same thing please."

The woman smiled as she began to process Winry's order. "Got to go catch a runaway?"

"Two," said Winry, "Two idiots."

* * *

"Hold still, Edward!" Sylvia yelled as she grabbed a fistful of golden hair and jerked his head back under the streaming water coming from the bathtub faucet. "You're a terrible patient." 

"Ouch!" Ed yelled and tried to turn his head around so that he could glare at the girl and chew her out. He didn't get very far though, because Sylvia just jerked his head under the water again and told him to hold still. There was no saying no to a person with a Winry personality, so he figured that he might as well give in. Did fate hate him, surrounding him with Winrys? Yeah, he felt pretty sure that that was the case. The price for his sins wasn't just an arm and a leg, but also that he'd be haunted by Winry everywhere he went. He shuddered to think what would happen when Winry died and actually COULD haunt him everywhere he went. Well…he'd make sure to die before her, then he wouldn't have to worry about it. He could haunt HER!

"Calm down, Mr. Impatient. This'll be over before you know it. Edward sighed and shook his head a little, but not enough to make her pull his hair again. Why did she always have to come up with all these nicknames for him? It was okay if his mother had called him things, or Auntie Pinako, or Winry, even Al…no, wait, having Al call him things was just too creepy. Better just stick to "Ed" and "Brother" for him. He'd seen the kinds of nicknames that came from Al, and he didn't want to be his next victim. After that time that Al had called Major Armstrong "Mr. Sparkleyman" Ed had resolved to not let Al call him anything…unusual.

Ed finally exhaled and resigned to Sylvia's care. The water cascading down the sides of his face actually did feel quite nourishing, though he couldn't help but squirm a bit every time Sylvia's hands would touch his inflamed gills. She was obviously just trying to get water in them as well as getting them clean, but it hurt all the same.

At last, the water stopped, and Ed breathed a sigh of relief. No more torture. Sylvia playfully slapped him on the back which caused him to turn around. "Come on, it couldn't have been THAT bad." Ed pinched his eyebrows together for a brief moment as he looked at the girl. How would she know how bad it was? She didn't have gills. He rolled his eyes at her. It was pretty much the same with Winry and her auto-mail.

Sylvia picked up a towel and carelessly threw it over Ed's head, obscuring his vision. A cry of protest later, she said, "Here, dry yourself off. I'm going downtown to do some shopping. You stay put here, got it?' The boy raised his hand in a resigned gesture, apparently satisfying the girl, so she spun on her heels and left. Of course, Ed was notorious for not keeping that kind of promise.

* * *

Downtown in this particular town was breathtaking in that it had wider than normal cobblestone streets, large, bustling crowds, and an over surge of street vendors. This looked to be quite a successful endeavor shopping here. Sylvia, with her limited travel experience during her lifetime, had never seen the likes of it. 

She hurried towards the nearest produce cart and took her time scanning over the merchandise. There had never been an opportunity in her previous life to be as picky as she was now being, and she was going to take full advantage of it.

Suddenly, a hand fell on her shoulder, and she spun around in fright at the unexpected touch. Her eyes fell on a man that she could tell by the uniform that he was from the military. Sylvia felt her mouth go dry and she licked her lips to try and relieve the awkward feeling the dryness brought on.

The man almost seemed amused by Sylvia's nervous reaction and chuckled a bit, and then finally spoke. "Pardon me, ma'am, are you Sylvia Bowman?"

Sylvia tensed, but tried not to make it look visible how she felt. One thing that her father had instilled in her from an early age was not to give the military any more information than they needed, especially your name. In such a corrupt government as Amestris had, it was best not to help them if one could get away with it.

"No," Sylvia said, regaining her composure with practiced ease, "I'm Elina Darren."

The man before her smiled in a way that told her that he wasn't a bit fooled by what she said, but was willing to play along with it. "Well, Elina, do you happen to know Sylvia? Could you get a message to her?" Sylvia swallowed again and said that she hadn't yet met this 'Sylvia', but that she'd be happy to carry a message for her. The man smiled again and spoke. "Please tell her when you find her that we know she's protecting the runaway State Alchemist Edward Elric, and would she please bring him to the military headquarters to avoid legal trouble on her part."

Sylvia's mouth went numb; she couldn't think of anything more to say. The military man took his cue that his mission here was complete, so he spun on his heels and took off in another direction. It was a good thing too, because the girl suddenly felt herself being overcome by sickness. Her legs gave way, and she soon had a personal meeting with the cobblestone walk.

* * *

Upon entering the river, Al's first reaction was simply an overwhelming sense of dizziness, kind of like what one would feel if they drank too much oxygenated water too fast. But this was ordinary river water, not more oxygen than the average river, so his reaction must have been due to his new ability to pick up oxygen from the water. He wasn't at all used to it. 

After finally getting his bearings, he kicked his legs and once again found his head above water. His heart was racing from all the adrenaline pumping through his system, and he found himself hyperventilating, which he found quite odd, since he had supposedly been breathing underwater. A throbbing at the back of his ears answered in part that last mental question of his. It seemed that his gills weren't used to being used, as well as the fact that the newly open cuts were still quite painful, and these both contributed to the inefficiency he experienced in breathing underwater.

Al shook his head to get his hair out of his eyes. His brother needed his help, and needed to be warned of what was happening behind his back. His own discomfort would have to be forgotten about for now. With new resolve, he took a deep breath and then plunged back below the surface.

Fortunately, he didn't experience the same kind of dizziness this time as last time. That must have come from the mad pace at which he'd entered the water in the first place. He consciously began kicking his legs, hoping that he'd be able to figure out how to breathe while he was going.

As much as he tried to hold that last breath he had taken in, he watched as the air bubbles slowly trickled out of his mouth until his lungs were completely empty. Suddenly, he felt a mad need for air seize him, and he turned to swim back to the surface when he felt some sort of switch flip in his mind, and his body went calm again. Why, of course! It would make sense that both gills and lungs couldn't be used simultaneously, so he had had to expel all the air from his lungs before his gills took over. He was now breathing like he'd been underwater all his life. He hadn't even had to learn it. Then again, that made sense too. A human's first breath was as a baby. It just wasn't something that one had to think about, as it was part of their programming. Maybe Sea People weren't much different.

Al boredly continued kicking his legs to help the current carry him along for he didn't know how long, hoping that he'd reach his destination soon. If only he'd brought along something to eat or something to read…then again, what could he have brought with him underwater?

All at once, a sharp tension flooded Al's chest and brought him out of his thoughts. He wanted to scream from the pain, but felt that that would just make it worse. The pain increased and Al knew that he needed to breathe, so he tried consciously working his gills more than normal, but to no avil. He had to get to the surface, and fast. Almost without instruction, his legs sprung into action and propelled him upward until his head broke the surface of the water. With great relief, Al gasped for breath several times, each time making the pain decrease, until it was gone. That was really strange that he would suddenly need air after having been under the water for several hours. Maybe that guy's comment about him being a half-breed had something to it.

Finally, calming down and breathing normally, Al looked around. The sun was now on the other side of the sky, making it somewhere between late afternoon and early evening. He knew that the train wouldn't reach the stopping point until after dark, so he still had some time, but he wasn't yet sure about how much. Looking ahead, he saw the sun reflecting off of some irregular surface. That wouldn't be a city, would it? Could he dare to hope that he was already so near to his destination?

A chance side glance caught someone walking beside the river. It would be risky, but Al needed to know. He raised his hand up and waved to them, completely forgetting how ridiculous it looked for someone to be swimming fully clothed in the river in the middle of winter, even if it wasn't that cold. "Hey!" he called, getting their attention immediately, "I'm kind of lost. Is that a city up here?"

The person nodded back in response and said that yes, that was indeed a city up there. Al thanked the person and promptly went back under the water, totally perplexing the poor individual as to his odd behavior.

What seemed only a few minutes later, Al found himself lying on his back, gasping for breath, on the bank of the river within his destination city. He had made it, with plenty of time to spare. Now if he could only get his bearings about him again so that he could try and find his brother and get out of here before either one of them got caught.

Al flopped over onto his stomach and positioned his hands so as to push himself up onto his feet. He didn't have his hand legs back yet, but he didn't have time to wait until they kicked in on their own. Shakily, he forced himself to stand, though it was quite difficult, considering how heavy his clothes had become now that they were wet. He would have to find a way to get them dry.

Awkwardly making his way over to a nearby tree, he leaned against it while panting for a few moments, and then he carefully peeled off a piece of bark. Looking around, he spotted a nice, soft stone, and with it, drew a simple transmutation circle on the piece of tree bark that he had peeled off. Satisfied with his work, he pressed the bark to his chest and closed his eyes as a warm energy erupted from the array inscribed on the bark, and the water in his clothes began to vaporize off of him.

Within minutes, he was dry again and could walk like a normal human being without stumbling. Thank goodness for alchemy. Before taking off, he replaced the rock where he had found it and buried the bark at the base of the tree, thanking the tree and the stone for their help. He didn't know if trees and stone actually had consciousness, but there was no one here to laugh at him right then, and he figured that he owed them his gratitude.

Al wandered aimlessly through the streets for several minutes, trying to find some trace of his brother, all the while aware that he himself could be captured any minute as well. There had to be a better way. Suddenly he remembered the necklace that the old fisherman had given him. It was meant to help him locate sea people, wasn't it? Quickly, he took it off his neck, and held it in his hand, just looking at it.

It disturbed him that it didn't seem to be resonating with the same living energy as it had when he had first held it. Maybe he needed to wake it up, but how? He tried prying the clamshell open for several minutes to no avail. It must not have been meant to be opened. This was getting quite frustrating, and he dropped his arms to his sides in a full body sigh.

Al was so frustrated at this moment with having come so close and yet still being so far away from his goal that he began to hum an old tune to himself. His mother had sung it to him and his brother when they were little, and he still sang or hummed it whenever he needed to calm down.

All at once, the necklace began vibrating in Al's hand. In wonder, he stopped singing, and lifted it up to his face so that he could look at it. Its vibrational pattern was already slowing down, but Al guessed that that was simply because he had stopped singing. It seemed he had found the key to using this thing. All the same, it was odd, because hadn't it been filled with this same energy when he had first touched it? He hadn't been singing then. Of course, it could have just been reacting that way because it had just found a sea person, but now that that same sea person was wearing it, it didn't vibrate on its own anymore.

Al slipped the necklace over his neck and once again started to hum. The vibrations picked up, and he felt himself walking through the streets, completely oblivious to what was around him, just following the influence of the necklace.

Eventually, Al stopped singing, and he found himself having trouble deciding what his next step should be. Heck, that had been WHY he'd stopped singing. He guessed that it was probably because he was too close to where Ed was for the necklace to get a precise reading on him. Oh well, as long as he was close by, he was sure he could find him.

As strolled down the block a way when he chanced to glance up and see an inn. That was probably where his brother was staying. It made sense that he'd be staying there, at least. He quickened his pace and soon found himself standing in the front room of the inn. He walked up to the receptionist at the desk and asked if they still had any rooms available, since he honestly didn't know how long it would take to find his brother, even if he was in this building, and he certainly wasn't going to ask for Edward Elric by name.

"We don't have any completely empty rooms, no," said the woman, pushing her glasses up onto her nose, "We've been cramming multiple people into the various rooms because of all the trains getting stopped here."

Al placed his hands on the desk and leaned in to look at her. "I can deal with that if that's all you have. My train was stopped too…I'm just the first one of the group to get here." Well, that much WAS true, technically.

The woman pushed her glasses up again, as they seemed to have a problem with slipping down her nose, and said, "Very well, may I please have you voucher?"

Voucher? Al didn't know anything about that. "Uh…I was the first one off the train…so I guess I didn't get one. I'll just pay in cash if that's alright."

The woman gave Al an odd look for a moment and then resigned herself back to her duties. "Very well," she said, and proceeded to hand a book to Al to have him sign, "Just sign right here please."

Al took the pen and was about to sign his name when he suddenly remembered how much danger he and his brother were in. He couldn't risk their safety by revealing his name. It took him a moment to think, but he soon came up with a suitable alias and wrote 'William Anderson' in place of his name. He stared at the name for a moment to commit it to memory and then handed the pen back to the receptionist.

Without further ado, she handed Al his key, so he headed straight for his third floor room and went inside. There was no one else there at the moment, though it was obvious that he had a roommate, since one of the beds was messed up and there were towels and water strewn about in the bathroom. Al shrugged. It was no big deal. He would just have to meet his roommate later, but right then, he was tired.

Without bothering to take off any of his clothes, he climbed into the unused bed and fell asleep instantly. His sleep was so deep that he wasn't aware some time later of a certain blond-headed teen entering the room, seeing someone in the other bed, and running out of the room in a panic. He was that tired.

**_Thanks for reading, and I hope that you enjoyed that chapter! Leave me some reviews if you will, and I'll try to update again as soon as possible. Take care, and have a nice day!_**


	14. Chapter 14

**_Phew! I had to type this up so quickly, hehe. I'm glad it's not as long as a lot of the chapters I've been writing lately, or my hands would have been killing me by now, hehe. Anyway, I hope that you enjoy this._**

**_Disclaimer: Darn, I had a good disclaimer I wanted to use, but now that I'm here at the computer, I don't remember it. Well, until I find my lost disclaimer, just remember who and what I don't own._**

"That Edward!" exclaimed Sylvia to herself as she formed a fist with her right hand and punched the air for emphasis. "Why didn't he TELL me that he was Edward Elric, the famous Fullmetal Alchemist? How was I supposed to know that shrimp like that could be so powerful?" She grunted as the wooziness from before started creeping back into her stomach, and she wrapped her arms around her abdomen. "Now we're both in trouble."

The girl finally arrived back at the inn, having forgotten all about the produce she had planned on buying earlier that day. There were more important things to worry about right then, and Edward about going to get the brunt of one of her lectures just as soon as she caught up with him.

Reaching his room, she pulled out her key and let herself in without even bothering to knock first. For all she knew, he might use the chain lock to keep her out if he had any idea how upset she was. She stepped into the room and let the door slam behind her. "Edward?" she called, "Edward! Where are you?" Seeing no sign of the boy in the main room, she turned and went over to the bathroom, as she figured that he might have been hiding in there. No such luck. "Edward!" she shouted to no one in particular, "You promised to stay put, now quit clowning around and come out!"

At this point, she heard a moan come from the other side of the room. When she turned to face the source of the noise, she was shocked to find someone else sleeping in the other bed. A hand went over her mouth. "Oh, I-I'm so sorry; I didn't know you were in here. I'm sorry that I was so inconsiderate."

"It's…okay…" said the other sleepily as though trying to figure out what she had just said. Suddenly, his eyes snapped wide open and stared at Sylvia as though something had just occurred to him. "Wait, this isn't YOUR room, is it? I don't mind sharing a room with someone, but you're a girl and…"

Sylvia smiled and couldn't help but laugh a bit at the boy's obvious naïve cuteness. While it was somewhat tempting to be sadistic and tease him, which she would have done with Edward, she decided in favor of just being nice to the poor boy, especially with that confused look that was still plastered on his face. "No,' Sylvia shook her head, "This is my friend's room. He just gave me an extra key is all."

The boy breathed an audible sigh of relief. Sylvia placed her hands behind her back and shifted her weight from one foot to the other. She really wasn't sure what to say to this new boy, even though he looked innocent enough. He dad had taught her not to put her trust in anyone too quickly, so she was busying her mind trying to decide how much explaining this boy needed about her being in his room and whatnot.

As it turned out, Fate had decided to make the decision for her because the boy suddenly uttered a yelp of pain and reached up behind his ears. Sylvia's eyes widened at the sight of where he was reaching. Oh gosh, no, it couldn't be! Without so much as a word of warning, she marched right over to where the boy was, intent on having a look underneath his hair.

The boy noticed her approaching and tried in vain to convince her that he was fine. Sylvia didn't listen to a word he said, particularly since his grimacing meant that he was lying, and she grabbed a chunk of his hair. He briefly panicked and tried to wriggle out of her grip, but he was no match for Sylvia. She could handle Edward, so this kid was a piece of cake.

The boy whimpered a bit as Sylvia continued holding onto his hair. That meant that either he was a total wimp or he seriously had something that he didn't want her to see. There was only one way of finding out which one it was. So, with a quick breath, she lifted up the shock of hair she held in her hand and stopped dead when she saw what lay behind the boy's ears.

"You're another one of them, aren't you?" Sylvia said, "Another merman, right?" There was no response, except for the fact that the boy was visibly shivering. The poor thing must have been terrified to have had his secret discovered. Sylvia's heart suddenly went out to the boy, and she offered a light smile. "Don't worry, I won't hurt you. Come into the bathroom. Your gills are bleeding and they need cleaning."

The boy looked up into her face timidly, and Sylvia smile and took a few steps toward the bathroom. Turning around, she gestured for him to follow as if he were a cat. "Come on." The boy hesitated a moment longer, but finally stood up and slowly approached her. Sylvia smiled and gently took his hand, leading him into the bathroom.

After a few minutes, Sylvia had managed to clean off this new boy's gills and was now applying rubbing alcohol to them to help them to heal, since it was obvious that they had been cut open rather than opening on their own, like Edward's had. Cleaning this boy's gills had to have hurt a lot worse than Ed's did, but this boy had pitched a lot less fuss. Seriously, she thought Edward could be stronger about thing than he made himself out to be, but it probably had to be his idea, not hers.

"So," said Sylvia, trying to break the awkward silence they were sharing right then, "Would you mind telling me your name?" Seeing the hesitant look on the boy's face, she quickly added, "I'm not going to hurt you. I just want to help you, but it would help if I knew what to call you."

The boy was silent for a moment longer, and Sylvia almost wondered if he was even going to answer her, when he finally said, "…William…Anderson…I think, yeah."

Sylvia smile at the boy's obvious naïveté. At least he didn't just trust anyone, that was a good sign, but he needed to work on his lying skills. "That's not your real name though, is it?" The boy's eyes shot up to meet hers, causing Sylvia to let out a slight chuckle. It was a good thing that she'd found this kid before the military did. He didn't seem very good at hiding the truth.

"Anyway," said Sylvia after the moment of amusement passed, "My name's Sylvia. It's nice to meet you…William?"

The boy didn't even respond to her inquiry, but rather let his eyes go blank. Edward had a habit of doing that same trancing-out habit at times. It was kind of cute in a way. She waved her hand in front of the boy's face, and he suddenly snapped back into the present.

"Is…is um," the boy began to say, but lost his train of thought mid-sentence. He took to twirling his hair around his finger to help jog his memory. "Um…is your dad a…a fisherman, by any chance?"

A light went off inside Sylvia's head. Could this boy have just run into her dad? Actually, with him being a merman, that was quite possible, knowing her dad. 'Y-Yeah," she began, not completely composed in her speech, "He's a fisherman, hunter, you name it, he does it. I haven't seen him for years. Why, have you seen my dad?"

The boy slowly nodded, and Sylvia noticed that a light was started to enter his eyes as well, as though he was starting to feel more comfortable around her. "I…think so…he said to tell you that he loves you and that he'd return home as soon as me and my brother were safe." At this, Sylvia grew a wide smile on her face and threw her arms around the boy, thanking him profusely for delivering the message. It had really been a long time since she'd heard from him.

"I guess we just need to get you and your brother to safety then," said Sylvia, still in complete ecstasy, "So where is he, anyway?"

At this, the boy shrugged, but without waiting for a response from her, reached under his shirt where the necklace was still hanging. He held it up in his hand where Sylvia was able to see it, and her jaw dropped. She recognized that necklace as the one which her dad had been so proud of. Why would he have given it up? The boy didn't pay any attention to her reaction and just started humming into the shell, causing it to vibrate.

After a few short seconds, the boy put the necklace back underneath his shirt and turned to the shocked girl. "Brother's somewhere very close…too close to get a good reading on him. I think he might be in this building somewhere."

"Well, then let's go look for him, why don't we?"

The two people stood up and Sylvia helped him to get presentable so as not to attract attention, especially with his having gills, so she made sure his hair covered them.

Soon they set out of his room, but they had decided to stop at her room first to pick up a few things. Since that incident in the market square earlier that day, she figured that it'd be smart to actually be prepared this time. When they reached her door, she stopped and stared, rather than just entering her room. Upon inquiry as to what was the matter, she answered, "My door's been carded open…You know, like if you don't have a key, so you just slip a card in to unlock the door?"

The boy nodded his understanding of that. "So, who do you think carded your door?"

"My friend…your roommate, who else? I have a key to his room, but he doesn't have a key to mine. As to WHY he'd want to come into my room though, I don't know." Without further explanation or concern, she turned the door knob and entered the room, prepared to give that lecture of hers as soon as she ran into the object of her frustration.

What she saw, however, changed her mind. Edward was sitting on the bed, hair messier than normal, and shivering from fright. "S-Sylvia…I'm sorry for breaking in but…" His voice trailed off, so Sylvia picked up for him.

"But someone's in your room?" Edward nodded in acknowledgement of her perception of the situation. That explained why he was acting so out of character. Big, strong Edward apparently had a fearful side too, though it didn't appear that he often let that side show.

"It's okay, Edward," Sylvia said as she reached out and touched the side of his face. He didn't pull away from her, "I actually talked to the boy in your room. He's really nice…and…this is kind of unbelievable, but…he's one too."

Edward gave her the honor of at least a what-the-heck look, which caused Sylvia to smile and turn around. She motioned with her free hand, and the other boy stepped into the room…and stopped. His and Ed's eyes met in dead, shocked silence for a matter of moments…no one knew how long it was, since time itself had appeared to stop right then.

Finally, the other boy broke the silence and said, "Brother?"

"Al!" Ed finally gasped out, and then was instantly overcome by what looked at first to be a seizure, though Sylvia knew better. She sprung to Ed and grabbed him before he could hit the floor, and then held him as still as she possibly could for those few moments. The boy, now identified as Al, just stared wide-eyed and open-mouthed at the scene, completely unsure of what to do.

Finally, Ed tilted his head back and gritted his teeth to keep from screaming. Sylvia held him tighter and waited. She was right; he could be tough when he wanted to be. At last, the inevitable sound of fabric ripping reached her ears. It was a pity that her dad's good clothes had to be ruined, but it couldn't be helped.

When the commotion died down, Al plucked up his courage and said, 'What's happening? What's the matter with Brother?" Sylvia turned to face him and regarded him with a serious look and then turned back to face Ed. Ed nodded, so she slowly stood up and backed away, leaving Al to stare at the sight be fore him.

What met his eyes made him shiver. The pants that his brother had been wearing were all torn to shreds, and where his legs should have been, there was only a mass of grayish-green scales.

**_Hope you enjoyed that. Please leave me some reviews, and perhaps some suggestions and questions. The action should start really picking up in the next chapter if we're lucky. I could definitely use some of your thoughts on which way to go from there. Thanks, and hope to hear from you soon!_**


	15. Chapter 15

**_I'm sorry that it took me so long to update this story. A lot has been going on in my life lately, but the drama is finally starting to slow down a bit and allow me to think and breathe once again. Phew! Anyway, hope that you enjoy this chapter, and don't kill me too hard, heh._**

**_Disclaimer: I own Ed. That's my story and I'm sticking to it...though you probably don't believe me._**

Al staggered a couple steps as he tried to remember how to stand up, and his jaw dropped involuntarily. What had he just seen?

"Al?" Al shook his head when the voice pierced through his thoughts to bring himself back to the present time, though he continued to stare at his brother, who was speaking. "Al…shut the door, will you?"

The boy solemnly nodded and clicked his mouth shut. The door was closed in complete silence, and then Al turned back around to face his brother, hoping he'd have the strength to do so.

"Al…come here," Ed said again. Al nodded without a word and slowly stepped towards his brother, eyes widening as he got a better look at what had become of his brother's legs. The two boys just stood there for several awkward moments exchanging glances, neither daring to break the silence.

Finally, Sylvia stepped back into the scene. "Alright, you two, that's enough of this silent treatment. You're both merman, but neither one of you knew about it. Deal with it!" Both boys broke eye contact with each other and looked up at the girl, who was standing with her hands on her hips, wearing a smug look on her face. She then knelt down next to Ed and placed her hand on his tail. "You feel a little dry. Let's get you into water."

Sylvia then stood up and shifted her position so that she was able to grab underneath Ed's arms. She motioned to Al with her head to go and grab Ed's tail, which Al shakily proceeded to do. Perhaps it was a little mean for her to make Al touch Ed's tail when the two boys hadn't quite accepted each other's presence yet, but Al understood the reasoning behind the gesture. He was just going to have to accept the predicament that he found himself in now.

He grabbed a hold of the mass of scales, which he found felt eerily fish-like, and he followed Sylvia's lead into her bathroom. She had explained that there was no safe way to get him back to their room in this condition, so it was best to just let him rest in her bathtub until nightfall.

Soon, Ed was comfortably resting in a bathtub of warm water with Al and Sylvia standing over him, alternating between facial expressions of worry and intrigue. No one was saying a word, and the silence was getting awkward. There had to be some way to break the ice.

Just then, Sylvia plopped down on the floor so as to be at Ed's level, and said, "Hey, Ed…your two weeks weren't up yet…what made you transform all of a sudden?"

Ed chuckled and placed the back of his hand across his forehead. "I saw Al."

"What?"

"Just what I said." Ed licked his lips. "When I saw Al standing there, I sort of…lost control."

A moment of silence ensured, as it appeared that Sylvia was thinking on that one, when she said, "Oh! Seeing your brother produced an emotional response, resulting in a premature transformation."

Ed looked at Al, and then at Sylvia, then back at Al. "I guess," he shrugged, and then laughed slightly. Hey, the only person in that room who had a clue about mer-biology was Sylvia, not the two boys that SHOULD have understood it. They had never really thought that all that mythological stuff was all that important, until now.

Sylvia smiled and then stood up, stretched her arms over her head, and yawned. "I'm gonna go take a nap. You two catch up, got it?" She flashed them another smile, which seemed to just turn her last statement into more of a threat than an invitation, and then she calmly stepped out of the room and went to bed.

Several hours later, Al went to her bedside and began shaking her awake. It was now nighttime, which would be the best time to get Edward out of her room. A beam of light from the moon outside her window shone in the room and illuminated Al's face, revealing his look of concern. Sylvia sat up and stared at the boy. "What's the matter, Al?"

"It's Brother…a-and…I don't know what's the matter…but I'm worried."

Without another word, Sylvia jumped out of bed and made her way to the bathroom. She quickly flicked on the light, and then turned to look at Edward. The boy's eyes were closed, and he breathing had become rather heavy and erratic. Beads of sweat were forming on his forehead and rolling down his face to drop into the water.

"Edward, what's the matter?" Sylvia stooped down next to the boy and placed her hand underneath his chin. He opened his eyes just wide enough to reveal how pale their natural golden color had become, and then closed them again and continued with his heavy breathing. About then, Sylvia's gaze dropped to Edward's tail. What was normally a mass of grayish-green was now a mass of pure gray. That couldn't be a good sign.

"Edward, you're sick!"

Edward's eyes opened just a bit once more and looked at her, and then closed them once again. "No colors," he said.

"I know," Sylvia said, "You've got no color in your tail. That's what worries me."

"Colors…gone…" came the labored response from Ed, to which Sylvia responded by wrapping her arms around the boy and gently rocking him back and for like a mother. She had barely even noticed Al standing in the room beside her, looking worriedly between the two of them.

"Yes, you're pale, Ed…what can we do to make you feel better?"

"Your color…"

Without warning, a loud smack was heard on the window in the room just outside the bathroom. Al volunteered to check it out. He left, and in a moment was back with his report. "Some bird ran into the window. It was a big black one, like a crow or a raven or something."

Sylvia involuntarily shivered at that. She hated to admit it, but she was a little bit superstitious, especially now with Ed babbling nonsense about colors right then. No, she'd decided, she wasn't going to let a bad omen come between her and her friend. Edward would get back safely to his people, no matter what it cost her.

She looked up at the other boy. "Al…grab a few of those towels and get them wet, and then go and grab the blankets off my bed."

"Okay…" Al said, confused, but obediently following instructions all the same. He brought her the towels and began dampening them, just as she'd asked. "May I ask what we're doing?"

"We're going to wrap your brother up in these to keep him wet and then wrap the blankets around him to avoid suspicion." She caught Al open his mouth to protest that their room wasn't far enough away for Ed to get dehydrated in transit, and she gave him a look that told him to just hear her out. "He's really sick, Al. He needs to get back home, to the ocean, where he originally came from. We don't have anymore time to waste dallying around with him living in a bathtub. He needs the sea."

Al started quivering, most likely from a combination of worry and overwhelming sadness, and he nodded his head and proceeded to go and gather the blankets off the bed.

Very soon, the three of them were making their way through the dark city streets, Al and Sylvia carrying a tightly wrapped Edward, who oddly was too tired to complain about his predicament. "Don't worry, Ed," said Sylvia, "We're nearly there. I'm sure that the river water will give you back some of your strength, and if you boys follow it to its end, you'll be within a few miles of the Creatan border." The girl paused to get her breath and regain her balance as she listened to the erratic patterns of their footsteps in their attempt to carry a heavy load. "If you can find a way to cross land for a few miles, you'll meet up with another river just on the other side of the border, which should take you all the way to the ocean. Just…watch out for waterfalls." Sylvia tried to smirk in an attempt to lighten the mood, but Ed only persisted in talking about colors, so she returned to her concerned stance and concentrated on getting him there as soon as possible.

Before long, Al and Sylvia had arrived at the riverbank and had gently placed Ed in the water, trying to get him to recuperate somewhat. Sylvia was splashing a little water on his face when Ed finally muttered, "…Soldiers…"

Sylvia's eyes widened and she stood up and looked around, but couldn't see or hear anything amiss. Catching the worried look on Al's face, she said, "He's hallucinating." Kneeling down next to Edward once again, she proceeded to try and console him. "There are any soldiers, Ed, okay? Your mind's just playing tricks."

Edward seemed unfazed by her words, and in another labored breath, he said, "…Run…"

This time, Al cam over and started splashing water on his face to try and pull Ed out of whatever kind of fit he was in. "Brother," he said, hoping that a brotherly voice would have the desired effect, "There's nothing to run from. There are no soldiers. We were very careful about that."

"Colors…your colors…gone…"

Both Sylvia and Al sighed, as they still hadn't a clue as to what Ed was trying to say whenever he mentioned colors. It seemed that he was most likely suffering from some sort of delusion. Al raised his hand to splash some more water on his brother's face when Ed's necklace suddenly activated. Ed's hand came up and grabbed Al's wrist in a tight grip.

"Sylvia…run…" Ed said between still labored breaths, even if he did seem to have a little more control all of a sudden. "Al, come on!" Without giving anyone a chance to respond, Ed flipped his tail and dove into the river, dragging Al with him.

Al, not knowing what was going on with his brother, struggled frantically as the air began to escape from his lungs. He wasn't worried about drowning or anything, since he knew his gills would take over in a minute, but he didn't like how strangely his brother was acting. The struggle continued beneath the water for several minutes with Al adding yelling at his brother to the mix one his gills took over.

Finally, Al broke free of Ed's grip and swam to the surface. He poked his head out and immediately heard a shout of, "You let them escape!" Quickly glancing around, since Al knew that his brother would pull him back under any minute, he caught sight of Sylvia…and were those soldiers? It couldn't be!

He didn't get time to figure it out, because he soon felt a tug at his heel which pulled him back under the water. Ed reached out his arms as if to hug his brother and pulled AL toward him, holing the boy tightly to his chest. Al wasn't sure how to react, as everything was happening too fast, so he just waited.

A disturbing vibration soon pulsed through the water. Al was sure that that couldn't have been good, as it sounded somewhat like an explosion. His first impulse would have been to swim to the surface to check on Sylvia, but Ed's embrace was still tightly locked around him, making movement impossible.

Finally, Ed spoke. "She-She's gone, Al."

"Who?"

"Sylvia. I couldn't save her."

"What? No!" With a sudden burst of energy, Al finally managed to break Ed's grip and swim to the surface. Thankfully, the soldiers weren't there anymore, but where was Sylvia? Surely they wouldn't have dared to do anything to her! Al quickened his pace and began swimming frantically for shore, surprised that Ed wasn't pulling him back under this time.

Finally, Al reached shallow water, and shakily stood up on wobbly legs that were even more weighed down by his wet clothes. He scanned the shoreline. "Sylvia?" Then he noticed a bundle of clothes lying just a few yards away from where he was standing. "Sylvia!" He burst out running toward the place where the bundle lay.

The boy gasped when he saw Sylvia's form lying lifeless in the sand. The bullet wound on the side of her head was enough to tell anyone what had just happened. Al's legs gave way, and he fell down next to the still body while holding his head and crying, "No! No! No!"

A moment later, Al felt a hand on his shoulder. Startled, he turned around to see Ed sitting there beside him, a sad look in his eyes. Al had such a surge of emotions right then that he wasn't sure which ones actually belonged there in a time like that. He turned to his brother and said, with a note of bitterness in his voice, "You knew, didn't you? You knew they were going to kill her!"

Ed nodded sadly without saying anything. More angry tears rushed to Al's eyes and threatened to burn them until he was blind. "Then why didn't you save her? Why did you let this happen?"

"I tried to warn her."

"How?" said Al haughtily, "What did you do?"

Ed sighed in acceptance of Al's attitude toward him at the present and just continued to explain. "I was barely able to talk, but I tried to tell her about the soldiers and I tried to get her to run for her life." Al's mouth dropped open at that, but Ed kept on. "I also tried repeatedly to warn her about her colors, but she didn't seem to understand."

Al raised his eyebrow at his brother. "What did that mean, anyway?"

"Oh…um…" Ed had to pause and think as though suddenly realizing that someone might not have understood what he had been trying to say all that time, "Well…when I first changed into this form, I noticed that some of my senses heightened. I can now see a faint field of color around everything living. Her field suddenly disappeared today, and I didn't think that that was a good sign, so I was trying to warn her."

Al looked down at the ground, suddenly feeling guilty for the way he had been thinking and feeling about his brother the past few hours. His brother HAD had reasons for the things he'd done; he hadn't been delirious. He had been doing everything in his power to save Sylvia's life.

"Brother?" Al asked after a moment of silence.

"Hmm?"

"Why did you pull me under…and leave Sylvia to fend for herself?"

"Because, there was nothing more we could do than to try and get her to run, and I didn't want to lose you too."

Al nodded, not really able to make himself respond verbally, as tears began rolling down his face. Ed placed a hand on Al's shoulder once again. "It's weird…once again, I lose someone important to me, and I just can't seem to cry." Al threw his face into his brother's chest and proceeded to sob enough for the two of them. He had barely even known Sylvia, yet his tears were so intense. He had apparently managed to connect with her, even after knowing her for only a short time.

After some time had passed and Al had calmed down again, both boys once again stared at the lifeless form before them. They knew that they couldn't report her location or carry her body to a suitable burying ground without risking their own lives, and it was obvious that Sylvia wouldn't have wanted that. The loss of their lives would make her sacrifice meaningless. However, they still wished to show her some sort of respect, even if they couldn't bury her properly.

"We could bury her right here for now, Al," said Ed, solemnly, "The authorities will find her within a few day and take her to a proper resting place. Until then, maybe we can make her…comfortable."

Al agreed, and the two quickly dug a hold and placed her body in it. Al took off the coat he'd been wearing, Ed's red jacket, and placed it so that it covered her face. They didn't want to have to throw dirt in her face. Soon they filled the hole back up and had mixed a little bit of water in with the soil to that it was pliable. Ed took his right index finger and wrote in the mud over the temporary grave: "Goodbye, Sylvia. We'll Miss You."

Al gasped and jerked his head up at what he'd just seen. "Brother…you got your arm back?"

Ed turned up the right corner of his mouth in a half smile. "Yeah." He turned back to the grave, bowed his head, and whispered, "Goodbye" once more. Al followed suit, and then both boys jumped back into the river. Sylvia had given up everything just to get them home, and they weren't about to quit now. They'd continue on for her sake.

**_Heh...I didn't even see this coming, to be honest. It was unexpected for me, and even I don't have any words to say, heh. ((Melissa without words to say? Quite shocking.)) Anyway, if you'd like, please leave me some reviews, and I'll try to update soon. Suggestions are welcome too._**


	16. Chapter 16

**_Wow...you guys really liked Sylvia a lot, didn't you? Every one of you that reviewed mourned her loss. I guess I never expected such a strong reaction to an OC. Well...thank you, that's encouraging. Sorry, I can't tell you what's going to happen later in the fic, it'll spoil things for you. ((A lot of you asked about that, hehe.))_**

**_"Brother, can I do the disclaimer?"_**

**_"Why do you want to do the disclaimer, Al?"_**

**_"Because I've never done one before."_**

**_"Well, there's nothing special about it, but if you want to, go ahead."_**

**_"Okay! Melissa doesn't own me, but she owns Brother and he doesn't know it."_**

**_"What kind of disclaimer is that? Are you in league with her?"_**

**_((chuckles))_**

"Brother," said Al sadly as he turned to face the other, "Why did Sylvia have die? For that matter, why is the military after us?"

Edward shrugged as if to stall having to answer for a moment or two while he turned his body so that he was facing downstream. He then let go of his resistance to the river's pull and let the current carry him along. Al picked up his pace and soon joined him. "I don't know, Al…Why Sylvia had to…you know," he choked on the words a little bit as they came out, apparently reluctant to mention any word that had to deal with death. "I know why they military wants us though."

"Why?" Al prodded in his innocent way. His brother rolled his eyes and began to explain.

"We are both intelligent creatures, yet we're not human…or at least, not fully." Ed gave Al a quick glance to drive his point home and then continued with his explanation. "According to the way the authorities think, that means that we have no rights and they can do what they want with us. Remember how they treated the chimeras?"

Al nodded slowly, somewhat hesitant to answer. "…Yeah…but they mistreated them because they thought that chimeras could be valuable in war."

The older brother once again glanced at the younger, and in a voice that sounded like he was explaining two plus two to a first grader, said, "Well, we've certainly proven our value in war, haven't we?"

Al stopped swimming for a moment as everything suddenly clicked in his head. When Edward noticed that his brother was no longer beside him, he stopped too and turned around to face him. Al hovered in place for several moments, refusing to utter a word as his thoughts raced over him. Would the government treat them the same way as they had the chimeras if they ever got a hold of them? Thinking about it, it made sense as to why the military wanted them so badly. He could function on both land and water, and his brother was developing new abilities that no one had ever heard of. Only one thing was certain now; they had to get out of Amestris, and fast.

"Well, fancy meeting you here, Miss Rockbell," cam the casual introduction of the man in the blue suit. Winry looked up from her thoughts, briefly surprised to have been recognized and addressed, but calmed down when she realized who it was.

"Oh…hi, Colonel Mustang."

The man formed a tic in the corner of his lip that was threatening to turn into a smile, and he glanced briefly around the car they both found themselves in. "There don't seem to be any open seats. Would you mind if I sat down here?"

That was entirely untrue, and Winry knew it. She had picked a rather lonely car deliberately so that she could wallow in her thoughts. Colonel Mustang couldn't have found her by chance. He must have known she was on this train and sought her out.

"No, I don't mind," she said with a sweeping gesture of her right hand, "Sit."

Colonel Mustang sat opposite Winry gratefully and leaned forward in a sort of slouching posture while turning his head up to look at Winry. After steepling his fingers and tapping them together a few times, he apparently regained whatever composure he had had and spoke. "I suppose that we're both here for the same reason."

"You're looking for Ed and Al too, aren't you?" Her voice almost carried a note of accusation in it, thought Colonel Mustang didn't seem to mind too much. He merely sighed and nodded.

"Like I said earlier, Miss Rockbell,"

"Winry."

"What?"

"Call me Winry."

Colonel Mustang finally allowed himself to smile again as he paused to think on that one. He at last spoke up again and said, "If you'll call me Roy."

It took a moment longer for Winry to decide if she was willing to make that sort of leap by calling to Colonel by his first name, but then, if she wanted him to call her by her first name, then it was only fair to return the favor, right? "Okay," she finally said, "I'll call you Roy from now on."

Roy smiled at that and changed his position so that instead of slouching he was now sitting erect and had crossed his legs in a figure four position. He definitely appeared more self confident than he had looked a moment before. "Well, now that we're on a first name basis," he began, and then paused, apparently having entirely lost his composure from the moment.

Winry decided to help him. "You were going to say something about Ed and Al, I'm guessing?"

Roy nodded and cleared his throat. "Yes, thank you. Remember when I said that Edward and Alphonse didn't appear to be quite human?" Winry nodded, so Roy continued. "Well, I had my men study it further. Their DNA, especially Edward's, sort of resembles what you'd get if you crossed a human being with a fish."

Again, Winry was silent as she tried to process this new information. "So…what are you saying?

Roy leaned back in his chair and folded his arms across his chest. "The last few clues you've received from either of the brother have been that they were going west, right?" Winry slowly nodded. She had never actually TOLD Roy that the boys were going west, but he could have easily gotten the tip from someone else. "This is just a hypothesis of mine," Roy continued, "But I suspect that those boys are trying to leave the country. Actually, I suspect that they're trying to leave ANY country."

"What do you mean?" asked Winry.

Roy sighed and relaxed his arms so that they fell down at his sides and looked at the girl with a gentle, fatherly gaze. "I think those boys are trying to get to the sea, and they're going to need our help."

Ed and Al had been swimming for several hours non-stop, not even bothering to rest or eat. They both knew how important it was to get out of the country's grip as soon as possible, and they moved on with a panicked vigor, not even daring to surface unless Al had to breathe. He seemed to need to breathe air rather than water every so often, which could have simply resulted from his gills being smaller and less efficient than his brother's.

Finally, Al could go on no further. He crossed his arms across his stomach as it made a rumbling noise and said, "Brother…I'm sorry, but I can't go on without eating something." Ed looked at Al with a slight note of annoyance, but didn't dare grumble about the situation. Ever since he had gotten his body back, he'd had difficulty with keeping his spirit firmly attached to his body, and so had had to develop adaptive measures to make the ordeal bearable. Making sure that his blood sugar level never dropped too low was one helpful measure, and Ed was well aware by now that when Al ran out of energy, he ran OUT. Annoying or not, they'd have to stop until this problem was solved.

"Hmmm…" said Ed, swimming in circles around Al, amazed at the dexterity he was developing under the water in this new form. "I don't know what's around here that's edible, Al."

"What about your new senses?" Al asked, "Aren't they telling you anything?"

Actually, Ed hadn't even thought to pay attention to his senses, but he supposed it was worth a shot. He had noticed as he was swimming that his hair seemed to be picking up every vibration and wave in the water. Perhaps that was why his hair moved around like it did; it was acting as a sort of antenna.

Edward cautiously took a deep breath, being careful to avoid using his lungs underwater and only using his gills for breathing, and he undid the tie fastening his hair. As it unraveled itself over the next few seconds, he could only pray that Al wouldn't freak out too much, if God would even listen to him, that is.

He closed his eyes and paid strict attention to the signals his hair was sending him. The fact that it had a life of its own was still creepy, but Sylvia was right. It was part of him, so he just had to accept it. A few moments of silence passed with Edward in his meditation, when he suddenly broke it and swam down to the bottom of the river.

"What are you doing, Brother?"

"You'll see in a minute." Ed turned over rock after rock, trying to let the sensations in his hair guide him. True, it was nice to have a guiding force like that, but it got rather annoying when it would constantly get in his face. Finally, he found what he had been looking for, and he swam back up to Al, holding his cargo carefully. "How do you feel about a crawdad dinner, Al?"

At this, Al laughed. Not many people would turn down something like that when they were really hungry. "Sounds good," said Al, "But how are you going to cook them…or am I expected to eat them raw?"

"Watch and learn!" Ed then proceeded to throw his bundle of crawdads out of his arms. Before they got the chance to sink, Ed's hand and necklace began to glow with an eerie yellow glow, and an opaque yellow light sphere surrounded the group of crawdads, keeping them trapped. At this, Ed closed his eyes and increased his energy so that the water in the immediate surrounding area began vibrating with a high frequency.

Al looked around with a combination of wonder and fear. Ed smirked at the boy, and went back to what he was doing. He knew he wouldn't be able to further raise the temperature in the water unless he could focus it on the sphere, because he couldn't take the risk of harming Al or himself. Ed fixed his gaze on the glowing ball before him and mentally began commanding the energy to focus on that point, which it quickly agreed to do.

Within moments the job was done. The opaque yellow glow disappeared and the crawdads began sinking to the river floor, lifeless and well cooked. "Dinner is served!" shouted Ed, obviously excited over this new feat of his, "Dig in, Al, before I eat them all!"

The boys laughed as they both scrambled to retrieve the wayward crawdads. Soon they were sitting calmly at the bottom of the river, munching away.

"Brother?" Al said as he grabbed for yet another crawdad, 'How did you do that?" Edward shrugged, not quite knowing himself. "Well…it was amazing anyway. These new powers of yours…they're…impressive!" What kind of people ARE our people, if they can do things like that?"

Ed shrugged once again and tossed the remains of his last crawdad aside. "The only way to find out is to get there. Are you done eating?"

Al wiped his mouth on the sleeve of his jacket, even though it probably wasn't necessary under water, and said, "Yep, and it was a great meal too."

Ed smiled. "Thanks." He turned back downstream and swam a few yards before turning back to Al and motioning with his hand. "Come on, slow poke! Atlantis isn't going to wait for us forever."

Al quickly swam up beside Ed wearing a confused look on his face. "Atlantis? What made you say that?"

"I have no idea," said Ed.

"You don't actually believe it exists, do you?"

Ed looked down at his tail and ran his hand over the scaled which were still a little grayer than they should have been, though he wasn't as sick as he had been out of water. "Well, Al…I'm not sure what I believe anymore."

He didn't wait for a response from Al this time, and just flicked his tail to propel him forward. All his life, he had thought he'd know where the dividing line was between fantasy and reality. Now he was beginning to wonder if that line existed at all.

**_Okay, the action should start picking up soon. Feel free to leave me some reviews, maybe even some suggestions for what you'd like to see in the story, if you have them. Hope to see you soon!_**


	17. Chapter 17

**_Yes, yes, I know, I took forever to update this fic. It took me that long to get any inspiration for it, heh. When my muse goes on vacation, I seriously can't do anything until he returns, hehe. I guess that only my fellow writers would understand that, but it's true. Has anyone come up with a muse trap yet? It'd be nice to be able to catch them anytime you needed them, heh._**

**_Disclaimer: Hmmm...I haven't written one of these in ages it seems. I'm not even sure I can come up with anything creative, heh. I once said that I don't own a rubber duck and then realized that that was not what the disclaimer was for, but I said that already. Oh well, I don't own Fullmetal Alchemist anyway...and no, I don't own a rubber duck either, just in case you were wondering._**

The girl slowly opened up her eyes and stared straight ahead as she tried to adjust her focus. She felt bewildered at the fuzzy shapes swimming before her. Where was she? Try as she might, she couldn't recall the necessary information to fill her in on the current situation. Had something unusual happened to get her here, or was she merely waking up from a normal night of sleep? She blinked, and her vision finally began to clear. The blurry form before her slowly began to take the shape of an individual of some sort, though she couldn't yet clearly make out any identifying features.

"Are you okay, Maryd?"

The girl jumped involuntarily and found that she was bound to the surface she was lying on. That certainly couldn't be the result of a normal night's sleep. Her heart rate began to accelerate as she mentally lived through all the possible worst case scenarios she might go through in the next few minutes. She tried pulling against her restraints, to no avail. She might as well just calm down and find out why she was here, if anything.

"Maryd?" said the voice again.

The girl sighed and then blinked a couple times to clear her vision, which helped a bit, as the forms were slowly beginning to develop features. "Is...Is Maryd my name?"

A gentle hand was placed on the girl's forehead in response, and then was taken back off a few seconds later. "Yes, your name is Maryd. You must have had quite an experience to not remember. It will all come back soon, I'm sure."

"Um," said the girl, once again struggling against her bonds, "May I ask why I am bound?"

"Procedure," said the voice, "Sometimes patients get violent in their sleep, so we do that to protect the nurses."

"I'm not sleeping anymore," said the girl, "Can you release me now?"

"In a moment," said the voice, "As soon as I verify that you're alright. Can you see clearly?"

"Almost," said the girl.

"Almost?" said the voice, "Almost as in how much?"

"Well," she said, "I can tell that you're a guy."

The voice chuckled. "Well, that's a start. How many fingers am I holding up?"

The girl saw the figure move his hand in front of her, but her vision had not yet completely rectified itself, and she couldn't tell one finger from the next. She squinted to try and see them better, but it didn't help, so she just sighed and closed her eyes to rest them.

"I see," said the voice. "You had a really hard fall."

"What happened?" asked the girl.

"You'll remember in due time. I'm not a very good person to ask anyway. I only tend the sick and injured, I don't ask questions."

She understood that motivation well enough that she didn't bother to question it. There was no point in interrogating someone that didn't know much about the situation, so she figured that she might as well let it drop and just focus on getting back to normal so that she could understand who she was and why she was here.

"Hold this," said the voice, who put something small and hard in her right hand and carefully closed her fingers over it. Instinctively, the girl knew it to be a crystal, though she didn't know how she knew that. She was just aware that crystals were heavily used in this sort of healing practice.

"I want you to hold this too," said the voice on her other side, thrusting another crystal into her other hand and closing her fingers over it as before. She didn't object, merely allowing him to do whatever it was that doctors/nurses did. She wasn't sure which one he was, and at that point in time, it didn't seem to matter.

"Okay now, hold still for a few minutes," he said, and then he placed a third crystal onto her forehead and carefully balanced it there before retreating his hand. The girl could hear the man then move away from her and start to chant some sort of tune. The atmosphere around her seemed to start to buzz with electricity, plunging into her body and enlivening everything it touched. She allowed her eyes to roll back into her head and smiled as the feeling pervaded her body. This energy was precisely what she needed at the moment.

After a little while, the feeling died down, but it still left enough of the tingling sensation in her bones so that she was able to feel reasonably comfortable. The man came around and removed the crystals first, and then glided back over to her and stood by her side. "Now, Maryd, open your eyes."

The girl obeyed and opened her eyes. Everything was still blurry, and she was about to start feeling discouraged that she would never see properly again when her vision suddenly came into focus. "I can see!" she shouted triumphantly.

"Good," said the man, moving into her field of vision, "Your body and soul were simply not well connected. I think we got that problem solved now." He then loosened her bonds without another word, apparently now assured that she was in no danger, or him for that matter.

She stared at the man before her. She couldn't deny that he was somewhat attractive with his brownish hair that was billowing in the wind and his slightly bulging muscles, but something seemed a little bit off about him, though she couldn't quite place what it was. Her trail of vision continued to probe down his frame, trying to recollect where she was, and hoping that seeing him in full detail would help. He was shirtless, which seemed a bit odd for a doctor or nurse in her opinion, and all he was wearing was a long green pair of pants, or was that a skirt?

Suddenly she snapped up to a sitting position, fully alert now. That was no pair of pants, that was a tail! Her nurse was a merman!

* * *

"So how are we going to help Ed and Al?" asked Winry, brushing a strand of hair out of her face as she did so.

"I haven't quite figured that out just yet," Roy admitted with a sheepish grin, "I hate to admit that I don't have all the answers sometimes, but I do know that something needs to be done. There's something quite 'fishy' about Edward, and I don't mean that figuratively."

"So then what do you mean?" asked Winry.

Roy cleared his throat and then put his hand in his lap and cast his gaze in a trance-like way so that it just missed contact with Winry's eyes. He paused for a few minutes without saying anything in response to her question, but he obviously wouldn't be able to dodge the question forever. Finally, he cleared his throat and looked at the girl again. "Winry...have you ever heard of merpeople?"

"Merpeople?" said Winry in surprise, "You mean, like those fish people in the fairy tales?"

"Exactly," said Roy, "Remember when I told you that Edward's DNA resembled that of a fish?"

"Yeah, but," said Winry, who then caught the thought that Roy had been trying to convey and allowed her jaw to sag in shock. "Wait, surely you don't believe in--"

"I didn't," said Roy, "Until this whole situation blew up. Something is seriously going on behind the scenes in the military. If merpeople existed, they would be the first to know about it, and they would also do a good job of covering it up so that no one else did. If they got their hands on a specimen, they would closely monitor it and learn its behavioral patterns for quite some time, possibly even years, and the specimen itself might not even be aware of it. They would begin to make plans, do experiments, conduct genetic engineering to make new controlled mutations on test subjects, and then they would proceed to test the specimen directly, who would finally realize what had been going on all along. Now tell me, what do you think would happen if the specimen got away before the military was able to take it into the lab and dissect it?"

"I suppose it would cause chaos," said Winry, "From what I've heard, the military gets really mad when things don't go their way. What's this got to do with Ed and Al though?"

"I'm getting to that," said Roy, putting up a hand to stop any further questions from coming. "I said that Edward's DNA resembled that of a fish. So does Alphonse's on a lesser scale. They've been involved with the military for years now, so the military has been able to keep its eye on them. And then suddenly, up they go and disappear, and now chaos ensues in the military, just as you described. What if I am correct, and merpeople really do exist? What if I'm further correct in assuming that Edward and Alphonse are two prime examples of merpeople?"

"You actually think that Ed and Al are mermen?" Winry said, though it sounded more like shouting. "I've never heard of anything so ridiculous--"

Roy stopped her with a held up hand once again. "I know how ridiculous it sounds, Winry. I have been tormenting myself to sleep every night trying to come up with a better explanation, and I am still empty-handed. Can you come up with anything better to explain what's going on, considering all the evidence?"

"Well...no..." Winry admitted hesitantly, "But that still doesn't mean--"

"I know it doesn't," said Roy, "But if they are indeed merpeople as I've been suspecting, then that puts the boys in serious danger, and they will need human help in order to get out of the military's clutches and get to safety. They can hardly call on their own kind, can they? They don't know anybody else from their native land."

"That's true," said Winry, putting both her hands on her head and starting to mess up her hair, "But it's just so...so crazy! How do you expect me to accept all of this when it sounds so bizarre?"

"You have plenty of time to think it over," said Roy, leaning forward in his seat and then standing up, "The last place the boys were seen is still quite a way west."

Winry quickly took her hands away from her head. "Wait, they've been seen? Where? How are they?" But she got no answer, as Roy had already left the car, and Winry was alone again.

* * *

Edward swam up to the surface of the river and poked his head out of the water. He brought his hand up to his mouth and allowed himself to erupt into a coughing spasm that sent mud in all directions, followed closely by Al doing the same thing as soon as he had reached the surface. After he had calmed down, Ed placed a hand on Al's shoulder and said, "You okay, Al?"

"I'm fine, Brother," said Al, "But this water is getting too thick to breathe. I think we'll have to start traveling by land."

Ed sighed and looked down into the water surrounding him from the shoulders down. "There's no way I can travel by land, Al. I haven't transformed again since I saw you for the first time back in that town. I'm not sure if I'll ever have legs again, actually."

Al snapped his attention over to Edward. "But…I'm sure there's a way somehow. You were turned into a human when you were a baby or something so that everyone would think you were one. Who says that you can't turn into one again?"

"I was a _baby_, Al, that makes a difference," said Ed, staring directly into Al's eyes. "Children adapt a lot easier than adults do. I'm not sure I could take the strain of another…spell…" His voice trailed off at the use of that last word. He had finally admitted that Sylvia might be right in stating that magic existed and had been used on him, but it went against everything he had ever believed, and he wanted to resist the notion so badly. He shook his head to clear his mind of such thoughts for the time being, and then turned back to Al. "Anyway, you saw how I reacted when I transformed that last time. That hurt like heck."

"I'm sure it did," said Al, "But I don't know any other way. We can't keep swimming in these waters when we can't breathe in them, and we can't take you on land unless you transform."

"I know," said Ed, who sighed and took his hand off of Al's shoulder, "Let's just go downstream a little further. Maybe we'll find something up there."

"I hope you're right, Brother." Al then followed Ed's lead and flopped back into the muddy water. There must have been a way to get out of this situation. There just had to be.

* * *

"You're a merman!" yelled Maryd at the vision before her. The merman merely chuckled in response, making the girl clench her fists and begin to grind her teeth. She did not like being taken lightly.

"So are you," said the merman, "Well, you're a mer_maid_, but you're technically the same creature that I am."

Maryd looked down at her body. Sure enough, from her waist down, her body was covered in green scales just like the boy before her. How had that happened? She had thought somehow that she was human, until she had seen that.

She looked back up at the boy. "What did you do to me?" Tears were beginning to brim into her eyes, though she knew by now that they wouldn't slide down her face, as the water around her would just wash them away. "Why did you turn me into a mermaid?"

"I didn't," said the boy, throwing his hands up to portray innocence, "You've always been one. You've simply been around humans too long and forgot."

"I've been around…humans?" said the girl, a faint part of her consciousness finally starting to unlock within her. Feelings that she knew to be associated with forgotten memories began to leak into her mind, though the memories they were associated were still stuck behind that wall of forgetfulness.

"Yes," said the merman, "So much so that you've forgotten what we even call ourselves. We are sea people, not merpeople. That word is completely human in origin."

"I…I see…" said the girl, placing a hand on her head to balance it as though it were about to fall over.

"Do you?" said the boy.

Maryd glanced up at him for a split second and then back down at her tail as though it would help her to retrace the missing memories to look there. "I'm seeing something," she said, "A couple boys…they look human, sort of…and a sense of obliviousness." She stopped for a moment as she tried to register these thoughts that were just now coming into her consciousness. The boy stood by patiently as she did so, only speaking when she needed encouragement to keep trying.

Suddenly she gasped. "I sense impending doom. I don't know what, but it's bad, and these boys are Atlanteans!"

The boy patted her lightly on her back. "You're doing well. Give it some rest now. You'll remember more later."

Impatiently, she pushed the boy's hand away from her. "I don't have time to rest! Those boys are in trouble. I have to get to them NOW!"

"But how would you do that?" asked the boy, indignantly. "Granted, a fellow Atlantean needs our help, but from what I gathered, these boys are on land. How do you expect to get there, and with amnesia to boot?"

"I'll find a way!" shouted the girl, who then kicked her tail and swam up into the water surrounding the table she had been lying on. The boy reached up to try and grab her, but she kicked his hand away and bolted for the nearest window. She couldn't blame him for trying to catch her again, after all, it was his job, but she needed to get away from him for now.

"Ed…Al…those were their names," she muttered to herself as she swam away from the building she had just escaped from, "Wherever they are, I'll find them, somehow, and I'll see to it that they get the help they need. There has to be a way." With that thought, she aimed herself for the center of town and swam forcefully in that direction without even knowing whether that was the right way to go or not. Something had to be tried, even if she didn't know what she was doing. She closed her eyes and took a deep breath, and then opened them again to let the ocean water rush back into them and sweep them of the tears that had been forming there.

**_Hope you liked the chapter. My muse is still kind of iffy on whether he wants to stick around or not, so feel free to make suggestions, as that might convince the muse that he should stick around and have a party. ((snickers)) Yes, yes, most muses are supposedly female, according to the old legends, but try telling that to mine, hehe. I suppose that I could put him in a dress. Wonder what he'd think of that? ((evil thoughts)) Anyway, I'm not going to force you to review, but I'd certainly appreciate it, and suggestions would certainly help my muse to stick around, hehe. See you soon!_**


	18. Chapter 18

**_Muahahahahaha! I still have my muse! W00tness! Okay...now I'm talking like my geeky brother, which is scary...but oh well, I guess that I'm technically a geek myself, so I guess that works, heh. Anyway, hope you enjoy the story, and thanks to AdventureAddict for finally giving me some ideas I could use, hehe._**

**_Disclaimer: I'm too bored to come up with a creative disclaimer. Read last chapter's disclaimer to see what I'm disclaiming._**

"Ed...Ed!" Edward simply snored in response to the voice that was calling to him in his sleep. It was difficult to do otherwise, considering how thick the mud was getting the farther west he went. Any thicker and he wouldn't be able to sleep at all without drowning, which was quite a feat for a merman to accomplish. As it was, he couldn't sleep all the way through the night without rising to the surface to breathe a few times, and his subconscious mind would remind him of that periodically and wake him up to do so. He knew that this wasn't his subconscious mind however, his own subconscious mind didn't call to him in a female voice.

"Edward!"

Edward snorted and snapped his eyes open in response. When a voice gets loud enough, even the great Edward Elric can't ignore it. He took a few slow breaths to slow down his racing heartbeat as well as to ensure that he didn't choke on the thick water around him. Gradually his eyes began to adjust to the darkness around him, and a form of light appeared to him, seemingly standing in the midst of the water. If they were standing, then they certainly didn't belong in the water, that much was clear.

"Who are you?" Ed said, and then regretted it as he had to cough to expel the mud he had taken in to speak.

"Aw, Edward," said the figure as they gently placed a hand on his forehead, "You don't have to speak. The water's too thick for you. I can understand you by your facial expressions."

Edward calmed himself down and nodded. Then he stared intently at the figure and raised an eyebrow, hoping that whoever or whatever it was would be able to decipher that he was still trying to ask the previous question.

The figure laughed in response. "Edward, honestly! Did you actually think that I would abandon you guys?"

Now both of his eyebrows rose up in confusion. He recognized that voice from somewhere, but he was having a difficult time placing exactly where. He'd run into too many different women lately to be able to figure out who this voice belonged to when they were clearly out of their element. Apparently, the visitor was able to read this expression on his face quite well, because she suddenly laughed and then bent down even closer to Ed's face, as though that would help. It didn't, since she was just a blurry white form, but Ed understood the gesture.

"Ed, you dummy! It's me, Sylvia!"

Edward's eyebrows were already up, so he couldn't jerk them up in surprise, but his jaw had not yet dropped, so he let that go and in return got a mouthful of mud which sent him into a choking spell. Expelling mud while still remaining in it is not an easy task, and the choking just seemed to be getting worse until Sylvia's glowing form slapped him on the back, helping him to dislodge the mud from within him.

"Geez, Ed, you're going to choke to death if you stay down here much longer."

Edward wanted to sigh and ask her if she had any better suggestions, especially considering how it had been she herself who had suggested that he come this way in the first place, but he didn't dare open his mouth again.

"I didn't realize that the river got this muddy this far west," said Sylvia, standing erect again, though Ed still couldn't make out any details on her. Part of him was comforted to know that she still existed, but it was still a bit unnerving to have her present in spirit the way she was. It went against the way he had been raised, not that the rest of the things he was experiencing lately didn't. It was just one more thing to add to his collective pile of weirdness that had suddenly entered his life.

"I'm sorry about this, Ed," said Sylvia, breaking Ed's train of thought, "I'm not going to abandon you two, don't worry, not after I tried so hard to get you guys to safety. I'll find a way out of here for you."

Ed opened his mouth to speak, but before he could say a word, the apparition had vanished. Maybe she had been smart enough to notice that he was going to respond, and disappeared before he could do so and choke on more mud. Still, he wished he'd gotten the chance to ask her a few things. If he was going to be seeing ghosts now, he wanted to be able to understand what he was seeing. Surely she of all people would understand that, having had traveled with him for a few weeks.

A few hours later, Ed rose to the surface again to breathe. The sun was just barely peeking over the horizon, and the birds were in full twittering mode. One would think that all the birds would still be in the south during the winter months, but either these ones were the first ones back, or they had never left. Ed shrugged. He didn't really understand the behavioral patterns of birds anyway. He then took a deep breath of the fresh morning air and then dove back beneath the surface.

Al was still sleeping on the bottom of the river when Ed came down to look for him. It was pitch black underneath such muddy waters, he honestly didn't know how anything could live in it, though some creatures did. None of them were things he would consider eating though. The creatures he would eat all required sunlight. Something about completely colorless river animals just turned him off of all thoughts of eating them.

Ed felt around the bottom of the riverbed until he found the mess of wet clothes that Al was still wearing. The boy would have to change them soon if he wanted to still wear normal clothes like a human, because these ones were going to rot away before long. Edward felt along his brother's body until he found a shoulder, and then he gently shook it, coaxing the boy to wake up. He couldn't see whether his efforts were having any effect, but he would know that they were once Al started moving of his own accord.

After a moment, Al finally did start to squirm under Ed's touch, so Ed removed his hand and swam back up to the surface to await Al's arrival up there. In waters this this, the only way for the two of them to talk was to talk above the water. By and by, Al's sleepy head finally appeared above the water and gasped for breath. As soon as he calmed down, he brought his hand up and began to rub at his eyes. "Wow, it's morning already?" he said.

"Yep," said Ed, shrugging in response, "I didn't see much point in continuing to sleep down there when the sun was up." Ed then swam over to the side of the river and pulled himself up onto a rock that happened to be positioned there, and Al quickly followed suit. The two were a mess to behold once they had gotten themselves out of the water. Their hair was stained with mud, not to mention the fact that Al's clothes didn't look new at all anymore. At least they were black, so the stains wouldn't be permanent. Not like it would matter since he would have to throw those clothes out soon anyway, but it was still annoying.

"Look, Al," said Ed, pulling his tail up to his chin and wrapping his arms around it as though he had legs still, "There's nothing to eat in the river, and I can't go on land. Would you go on land and find some food for the both of us?"

"And leave you behind?" said Al, raising his eyebrows in shock, "No, never!"

"But Al," said Ed, sighing and resting his forehead on his tail where his knees would have been had he been human, "We're both hungry. We haven't eaten in a couple days because of this mud. We're taking a risk either way. Either we risk something happening because of our being separated, or we risk dying of starvation. I'd much rather take the risk that might prevent either one from happening."

"In other words," said Al, who then sighed and placed his arms and legs in the same position as his brother, "You want me to go out and find food, but not take too long about it so that nothing has the chance to happen."

"Basically," said Ed.

"Fine," said Al, "But if something happens to you while I'm gone, I'm holding you personally responsible."

There was a delayed reaction as the joke Al had made slowly sunk into Ed's brain, but once it had, Ed could no longer resist and he began grinning and letting out a few chuckles. "Al," he said, shaking his head while still grinning, "Don't make me laugh about something as serious as this."

"Why not?" said Al, standing up and trying in vain to dust himself off, "Those who take life too seriously have no fun in life."

"That's true," said Ed, who put his head back down on his tail as Al turned and walked off into the wilderness, leaving him alone.

* * *

Al didn't really know where he was going, so he just continued to walk forward in the direction he had started out in, making sure not to get lost. Sooner or later, he would have to find something. Sure enough, there was something up there ahead of him that he could see, but he couldn't yet make out what it was. There were some bright flashy colors that poked through the brush, but that was the best that he could tell. Who or what would be out in this wilderness, he couldn't say, but it made the most logical sense for him to head in that direction. 

After quickly performing a transmutation on his clothes to ensure that all the mud was off and he looked presentable, he continued to head in the direction of the brightly colored something. Before long, the sounds emanating from the direction of the brightly colored thing began to reach his ears, and he started to piece together what it was. There were shrieks of laughter, loud exclamations as though someone was shouting from a platform, and lots of cheerful, festive music. It must have been some sort of traveling carnival or circus to have that kind of aura about it. Surely there would be food there, even if it might be junk. At least it would stave off his and his brother's hunger.

It wasn't long before he had arrived in the midst of the carnival. While the music and the shouting and the laughter continued as before, he realized to his chagrin that there was no crowd present, hence the carnival wasn't open. Apparently, everyone here was practicing for the next big show, wherever it was being held. So maybe he couldn't buy any food from a snack booth, but there was still the possibility that he could talk someone out of their food, since they had to have their own food around somewhere.

Al walked up to the nearest person and tapped on their shoulder. "Um...excuse me, but..." The person spun around, obviously surprised at being approached like that, and Al gasped. He stared at the person wide-eyed as he mentally counted over and over again how many limbs they had to make sure he wasn't merely seeing things. The person had three arms, the extra one hanging down from his right shoulder, but draping across his chest, almost lifelessly.

"Hey," the man said, and then smiled in a friendly way, which made Al unsure of whether he should relax in the presence of this man or not. "You're new here, right? What's your problem?"

"M-My problem?" Al stammered.

"Yeah," said the three-armed man, "I mean, why did the boss collect you? You seem pretty normal to me."

"Collect me?" Al said, once again repeating the words of the man, "I don't quite understand."

The man raised one of his eyebrows and stared at Al oddly. "Then the boss didn't bring you here because you were some kind of freak?"

Al's gaze turned blank as he slowly shook his head, trying desperately to understand what this man was getting at. Did he look like a freak to this three-armed man? How could he possibly look like a freak around someone with too many limbs?

"What is this, some kind of freak show?" Al asked, curiosity getting the better of his polite side.

The man smiled again and stifled a chuckle. "Of course it is. I would have thought you knew that if you managed to find your way in here."

Al hung his head in shame and embarrassment. He had honestly never been to a freak show in his life because he didn't like the idea of pointing at people who had simply been born differently from everyone else, but he would have thought that he would have recognized one had he seen it. Apparently not.

He raised his head again after a nervous chuckle. "I-I really only stumbled upon this place by accident. You see, me and my brother haven't eaten anything for a couple days, so I thought-"

"...That we might have some food to offer?" the man finished for Al, "Well, I'd like to help, but frankly, that's up to the boss. You'll have to talk to him. Where is your brother, anyway?"

"I-I left him by the river," Al said, feeling nervous and beginning to dig at the ground with his toe, hoping that the man wouldn't probe too much, as he had a very difficult time hiding the truth when a person did so.

"Why?" the man probed.

Al sighed. Why did everyone have to know everything about everybody? If only he had learned the fine art of lying, but everyone would see right through it. His only chance was to simply not tell the full truth and leave the man on a need-to-know basis. That was rarely ever seen through. Al looked down at the ground again. "My brother can't walk."

"I'm sorry," said the man, who then patted Al on the shoulder with one of his normal arms, "Maybe the boss would be willing to help. Does he look a little different from normal? I know the boss would help him for sure if he did."

It was time to divert the man's attention away from the question he had just asked, since there was no way he would be able to come up with a convincing lie to that question. "Uh, may I ask why your boss does this? All your banners are in Creatan, so why are you in Amestris?"

"Ah," the man said, leaning his head back and letting out a sigh. "That is simply because Amestris is so well known for its alchemy. Freak shows aren't popular in Amestris, so he doesn't run a lot of shows while he's here, but he finds most of his freaks here due to alchemy accidents."

"So he's on a recruiting mission right now?"

"Basically," said the man, "We're going to head back to Creata soon though. This time has been a rather dry run for him, and he's been a bit more irritated than usual, but he's got a good heart. A good heart that wants to make all the money it can, but a good heart nonetheless." At this, the man laughed, as though his joke was witty. Al wasn't so sure that it was, but he laughed simply because the man was laughing.

"So, is there any chance that I could talk to your boss about getting some food?" Al asked after the laughter had died down. The man opened his mouth to speak, but just at that moment, the two heard a noise like the crunching of brush to their side somewhere and they jerked their heads in the direction of the movement. There was nothing there except for empty tents, but Al had the sneaking suspicion that someone had been eavesdropping on their conversation.

* * *

Edward was still boredly sitting on the rock he had been on when he had sent Al to fetch some food. How long was Al going to take? He knew logically that it probably hadn't been all that long since Al had walked off, but it felt like an eternity to him. 

The sun was baking his skin dry. He should probably get back in the mud and soak himself before that happened, but he really didn't want to be in that mud again if he could get away with it. He brought his fist up to his mouth and began biting at his fingernails. At the very least, biting fingernails would take up some of the time and alleviate some of the boredom he was feeling at that moment.

He had been biting at his thumb for a couple minutes when he suddenly felt a fist grab either of his arms and pin them to his body, effectually immobilizing him. That was most certainly not Al; these fists were too big. "Hey!" he shouted as loud as he could, as though doing so would make the attacker leave him alone, "Let me go or you'll be sorry you messed with me!"

The attacker didn't take Ed's suggestion seriously, so he began to wriggle and convulse his body in every way he could possibly think of to get out of this person's grip, which he had to admit was pretty strong. If only he still had legs, he would at least have a chance of kicking himself free, but he wasn't sure how to do it when all he had was a tail. The man then lifted Ed off the rock he had been stationed on and placed him on a flat part of the ground, where Ed naturally continued to wriggle for freedom.

The man then placed his foot on Ed's right arm in order to pin it down and removed his hand. With a swift motion, he struck his hand to the back of Ed's head, instantly knocking him unconscious.

**_Hope you all liked that. If you've got any questions, comments, suggestions, or anything, feel free to review to let me know. I try not to beg for reviews anymore, since I'm confident enough in my own writing ability now not to need them to keep myself writing, but having others' thoughts still helps, though it's up to you whether you want to give them or not, hehe._**


	19. Chapter 19

_**This one was tricky, but I finally got it written out. Proud of me? You'd better be, because my muse is being evil. I'd better reel him in before he gets away again, hehe. I think I've got some pretty good ideas for this fanfic though, thanks to some joking around I did with AdventureAddict that actually turned into some serious plot points, haha. From insanity comes genius, after all.**_

_**And speaking of AdventureAddict, for those of you who didn't know, the two of us are writing a joint fic called "The Inner Nature of Alphonse". It's on her account, which is why most of you haven't seen it, but it's getting really good and it's the one I've been spending most of my time on lately because we're updating it pretty regularly. If you need further motivation to go check it out, need I say that I wouldn't be co-authoring it if it wasn't in the spirit of what I write? Hahaha...yep, more magic, mythology, and mayhem awaits, as usual. Hmmm...that should be my slogan.**_

_**Disclaimer: There one was a boy named Ed,  
Who always seemed to wind up dead.  
I looked at him  
His face seemed quite grim  
And he said "You don't own me, now quit writing this stupid limerick and quit killing me or I'll call the fanfiction police!" Geez, I didn't know such things existed. Oh well. **_

The mergirl clutched either side of the basin tightly with her hands and started deep into its depths. A single bubble of air rested in it, undulating and rippling as though it were liquid, somehow held down through some sort of magic to keep it from floating away. She shifted her gaze so that it was running past the bubble, almost as though looking through it. Before long, images started appearing to her, maybe they were on the bubble, maybe they were in her mind. She wasn't sure, and she didn't care. What mattered was that she was seeing them at all.

"Ed...Al..." said the girl sadly as a tear pricked at her eye and was then washed away by the river currents. The figures played before her a drama of their life, growth, and now their current struggle with survival. Sobs began to wrack the girl's body, but she continued to try and sustain the image for as long as possible. The image changed so that the two boys were alone and crying, hoping that nobody else would see, but she saw, and she joined them with her tears.

"I'm so sorry," she choked out, "I'll make this right somehow, I promise." She then closed her eyes and the image vanished.

* * *

"I have a proposition to make with you, young man," said the big man as he casually strolled up to where Alphonse was standing. He had been waiting a long time to speak with the boss, but no one had known where he had disappeared to, and he had only just shown up. Al suddenly snapped his attention to the man and held his back erect, fully alert now. Hopefully he'd be able to get some food and leave, since his brother was no doubt getting impatiently hungry by now. He had the tendency to do that. 

The man smiled, though the smile made Al a bit nervous and he unconsciously took a step back. "Work for me, and you can have all the food you want."

Al blinked a couple times, trying to make sure that he had heard the man right. Work? No way, he couldn't be tied down to anything what with him and his brother trying to get out of the country. Al shook his head. "I'm sorry, but I can't. I'm just passing through, but me and my brother really need some food. Is there anything I can do to just get you to give us a single meal?"

The big man crossed his arms and smirked. "The condition of getting the food is that you work. Is it a deal or is it not?"

Al sighed. There seemed to be no reasoning with this man. He turned away and said, "Sorry, but I guess I'll have to look elsewhere. We're just passing through and can't stay here, but I wouldn't really want to work in a freak circus even if we could."

The man raised an eyebrow and chuckled. "Really?" he said, and then turned around himself and headed back the way he had come. "And here I was going to put you in charge of the new guy. I would have thought you'd have liked that."

Al stopped and cautiously turned around. He wasn't interested in working still, but he had remembered the three-armed guy saying that the boss had had a dry run this time around, so where did he find a new freak? The big man turned his head just enough to see Al curiously looking at him, so he chuckled and walked up to a large box-like structure that was covered with a cloth. He placed his hand on the cloth, but before removing it, he said, "You don't look much like a freak, but I think you'd be the best one to tend to this one, since you know more about him than I do."

Al held his breath as the man tugged at the cloth and dropped it on the ground. Underneath it had been a glass enclosure filled almost entirely with water. down on the floor of it, and unmistakable lump was laying, looking almost dead, but most likely merely unconscious.

Al whimpered as he looked first at the figure on the floor of the tank and then back up at the man standing beside it. He slowly began to clench his hands into fists and grit his teeth as the blood rose to his head. Tears began to prick at his eyes, but they refused to surface just yet, satisfied with causing him pain in his vision. "What...did you...do?" he said under his breath.

"I just collected your brother here for my show. He's in good company here with a lot of people who will understand him, so you don't need to look at me like that." The man looked up at Al, grinned his annoying dominating grin again, and then looked back down at unconscious Ed at the bottom of the tank and patted the glass possessively. "If you still don't want to work for me, you're free to go, but I'm sure your brother will miss you."

The words Al wanted to say caught in his mouth, and he couldn't articulate himself properly, though he knew how he was feeling right then. Angry, even moreso, furious, at having been betrayed by this man. But was it betrayal when they hadn't really ever met this man before? All the same, he was still trying to use them, and Al was not happy.

"You!...How could you...You have no right...!"

"He would have died if left in that muddy river, and you know it," said the man, patting the tank some more, "Besides, he's clearly not meant for freshwater. I put some salt in the water in his tank, and the color is starting to return to his tail. You should be thanking me for saving his life."

Al still couldn't bring himself to say anything, and his eyes burned. Even when a tear finally escaped, it didn't lessen the pain. He just closed his eyes and felt his throat constrict from unreleased screams. He was starting to get dizzy, possibly from anger and possibly from dehydration resulting from the anger, and most likely a combination of both.

"Here," said the man, throwing something small so that it landed just a few inches from Al's feet. Al opened his eyes and saw a couple of keys on a ring lying in the dirt in front of him. "Those keys will allow you access to the food and supplies you both need to survive. You'll stand a much better chance with me than with trying to make it out there on your own." Without another word, the man turned around and left.

All the strength finally ran out of Al's legs, and he dropped down to his knees and started sobbing. "Brother," he said, a few tears now running down his cheek as he finally gave in to his emotions, "I'm sorry. I'm so sorry."

* * *

Winry clenched her fists and teeth together and let out a muffled form of a scream. Roy looked up at her with a startled expression on his face. He had kept trying to leave the car and leave her alone to think, but something just kept bringing him back to talk with her some more about the situation, and it look almost as though he was being rewarded for his persistence, since her emotions were finally breaking through. 

"What seems to be the trouble?" said Roy, steepling his fingers once again and tapping them together a few times to look almost nonchalant.

Winry shook her head a few times and closed her eyes as a few tears rolled down her face. "I hate that man!"

Roy raised an eyebrow and regarded the girl curiously. He rarely ever heard Winry talk this way. "You hate who?"

Winry finally opened her eyes and looked into Roy's face. She didn't respond directly to his question, but just sniffed in silence for a few moments, as though unsure of what her answer was in the first place. Roy sat patiently while the girl gathered her thoughts together, which seemed to be taking awhile, as she was still crying out tears on occasion.

When she had finally calmed down, Roy finally ventured to repeat his former question. "What was that all about?"

Winry shook her head. "I'm not really sure."

"But who was the man you were referring to?" he continued to ask.

"What man?"

"The one you said you hated."

"I don't recall saying that."

"All the same, you did."

Winry pursed her lips together, obviously disturbed and deep in thought. There had to be an explanation for her bizarre behavior, but Roy couldn't think of what it might be, or even if it was relevant, but he couldn't afford to rule anything out in this already bizarre case. If those boys were half fish, then who knew how many other odd things he was going to stumble upon as time went by.

Roy looked down briefly and was about to chuckle to himself at a sudden thought he had had, but quickly disguised it as clearing his throat so as not to offend Winry, though she looked up at him curiously despite his efforts. He nervously smiled at her and held up a finger to have her wait until he was finished with his 'cough'. Once he was done, he looked at her and smiled, and then politely revealed what he'd been thinking.

"Is there any chance that you're emotionally connected with those brothers?"

Winry sniffed. "What do you mean?"

"I mean that you don't even know what you were talking about back there. Are you sure that anger you were feeling was even your own?"

"You don't mean," said Winry, placing a hand over her mouth to stifle a gasp as she tried to keep up with the Colonel's train of thought, "You don't mean that you think I'm picking up Ed's emotions, do you?"

"Or Al's. He's been known to get angry too, so we can't really be sure who's sending, supposing I'm right."

"But," said Winry as she shook her head again in obvious denial, "What you're saying is crazy!"

Roy shrugged. "Maybe it is, but think: has anything like this ever happened before, with_any_ strong emotion?"

Winry slumped down into her see and looked down at her lap. Naturally, Roy's hypothesis seemed bizarre, but it had been worth suggesting, since everything else going on seemed pretty crazy as well. The girl finally looked back up at Roy and said, "You know, I think it has in a way. I sometimes cry when they're too stressed to cry themselves."

"I thought so," said Roy.

"But!" Winry said, waving her hand around frantically and interrupting him once again, "Isn't that just because I'm being empathetic towards them? That isn't some strange connection, is it?"

Roy chuckled and leaned closer to the girl so that she was forced to pay attention to him. "Do you even realize what being empathetic means?" Winry apparently hadn't expected her words to be turned on her, so she just remained silent and waited for Roy to continue his explanation. "An empath is someone who picks up on the feelings of others and experiences them as their own. Not many people can pick up everyone's feelings, but some people can pick up strong emotions from those they really care about."

Winry blushed and hung her head. "So do you think I'm picking up Ed's or Al's anger?"

Roy shook his head. "I honestly don't know."

Winry snapped her head up again and glared at the man. "Then why did you-"

"I'm just searching for a lead," said Roy, "We seem to be a bit lost, and could use a little outside guidance."

* * *

"Al, how could you have allowed this to happen?" Ed called irritably over the top of the tank he was being kept in. He had woken up with a bad headache and found himself at the bottom of this small enclosure, and had panicked when he had seen Al's concerned face peering at him through the glass. It hadn't taken long for Al to pour out the whole story to him, and Ed's anger had just escalated from there. 

"I didn't intend for it to happen, Brother!" Al shouted back, "In case you're forgetting, you're the one who sent me out looking for food. Didn't I tell you something was going to happen?"

"But anyone with an ounce of common sense wouldn't have wandered into a freak circus knowing that they'd love to add a couple new freaks to their lineup," said Ed, bitterly.

"How was I supposed to know what this place was?" Al said as he threw up his hands in frustration. "You wanted food, I got you food. Are you happy? I could've just left you there to die, but noooo, I have to care too much and go against my better judgment and listen to you. But is it good enough for you? Does nothing I do satisfy you, Brother?" With that, he spun around and began to march off, clearly done with the argument.

Ed stretched his hand out in Al's direction, but it wasn't nearly long enough to reach Al, and he couldn't get out of the tank. He could have used alchemy to break the glass, but that would release the water, and he needed that to survive, he knew that much, even though he hated to admit it. "But...Al, wait!" Al paid no heed, and just continued his little march as though he was completely deaf. "Hey, I'm sorry, okay?" Still, Al paid no attention, and continued walking until he was out of Ed's sight.

Ed sighed and rested his chin on the edge of the glass. "Idiot," he muttered, "Why do you have to run off at a time when I can't chase after you?" He choked back a sob, and then let go of the side of the glass and sunk to the bottom.

_**Okay, phew! That's done...now, if you want to review, feel free to. If you don't want to, don't worry about it, I won't murder you and I won't hold off the chapters because of a lack of them, hehe. I only do that for "Al Talks Too Much" because that one depends on reviews, but none of the rest of my stories do, heh. Feel free to give suggestions or ask questions though if you have them. They do help me find and fix plotholes, a whole lot, hehe.**_

_**Regardless, see you soon in the next chapter. Wish me luck with keeping my muse on a tether! **_


	20. Chapter 20

_**Of all things, I actually updated this story? Believe it or not, yes. I finally got angsty enough to get through it, since this story gets a lot of angst in spots and I just wasn't able to feel it enough to write it. Been going through some rough spots in my life, but writing is therapeutic, so I'll keep writing so long as the need is there. Hopefully the whole story will come out in that time.**_

_**Disclaimer: ((pulls out a gun and shoots disclaimer)) Oops, I missed and hit Ed. Guess that REALLY means I don't own him, huh? Don't worry, he got hit in a good guy place. That's how anime works. Good guys don't get severely hurt, hehe.  
**_

Al stomped his way through the brush outside of the freak circus. He didn't care whether anyone knew where he was. He didn't care what his brother thought of him. He didn't care what he did to the terrain and if he scared off all the cute little bunny rabbits. Nothing mattered to him right then. He just didn't freaking care about anything. Not when everything was going so poorly.

"Why did all this nonsense have to fall down on us all at once?" He kicked a bush as he walked past, but the bush didn't react, and he left unsatisfied. "If there really is a God, is He really so cruel and so petty as to leave us alone at a time like this? We need help now more than ever."

Al was sobbing as he said all these words, not caring whether anyone heard him, and wishing the tears would just give up and flow already so he wouldn't feel about ready to burst. He placed a hand on his forehead. A headache was coming on. "Why did Brother turn on me like that? I don't like the situation any more than he does. That freak of a freak show master was the one who did this to us."

Finally, the tears did come. All it took was the mention of someone he loved, and his wall of toughness broke down. Why did he always have to be so darn weak when his brother needed him most? Maybe it was because his brother didn't appreciate anything he did and grumbled about everything that went wrong. Maybe… Well, now he was just grumbling himself, and it wasn't helping the situation any.

"Darn it," said Al, still gripping his forehead as he knelt down and draped himself over a rock so he could rest. "I just want to end the pain. I'd give anything to get away from this awful pain." And he wasn't referring to the migraine.

He lay there crying for what he guessed to be several hours. It was long enough so that he could barely move for all the crying he had done, but he knew he needed to get back so he could check on his brother. He really didn't want to go back, not after all that had happened that morning, but what kind of person would he be if he abandoned his brother during such a time of great need?

He sighed and began his wobbly walk back, putting one foot in front of the other as carefully as he could, though his knees had a tendency to buckle under him. He would need to get a lot of sleep when he got back. Hopefully that horrible man at least had the sense to allow him that.

He didn't see it coming, nor had he heard it or sensed it, but it was like one second he was struggling to get back to the little camp, and the next, a tree branch was flying at him and knocked him to the ground.

As he lay on the ground, panting for breath, and coughing up blood, he wondered if anyone would even find him out here while there was still a chance of saving him. Somehow he knew they wouldn't, as he shed one last tear and gargled the words, "I'm s-sorry, Brother." He took one last labored breath, then closed his eyes and went to sleep. He never woke up.

Edward was panicking when Al didn't return by nightfall. Even if he had been really angry, Al was always mature enough to push through his anger and return home sooner or later. It was Ed who pulled the stunts of trying to stay away until someone found him and apologized. Even though Ed was the older brother, Al had always been the mature one. There had to be a reason why Al wasn't back yet. Al wouldn't do this!

Edward's constant pestering of various people finally got him someone who was willing to go out and look. Ed breathed a sigh of relief. Hopefully that guy would be able to find Al, and hopefully Al wouldn't run away from the man. That bumpy head and pointy teeth looked hideous, but the man himself seemed nice enough.

The man came back from looking after about a half hour, shaking his head. "Sorry, buddy, there's no trace of him. I called and called for him, but I got no answer."

Ed scratched his head fiercely. "He could be sleeping… or something. Yeah, sleeping, he's sleeping." He shuddered at the thought of what the "or something" could potentially be. "He might not respond to calling. Someone needs to take a light out and look for him."

"I'm too tired," said the guy whose name he couldn't remember. "I'll see if Bill will go."

The man walked off, and a moment later, Ed heard someone else say, "So what seems to be the problem, Ralph?" Ralph. That was the guy's name. He'd try to remember it next time, if there was a next time.

Ralph and Bill talked for a few minutes, and then Bill agreed to go out and look. But, a little while later, he came back with nothing. Ed pestered for a third time, and so both Ralph and Bill rolled their eyes and agreed to go out one last time, but that was it. They weren't going out again. Edward bit his lip and nodded. He hoped they found Al this time. He really, really hoped.

Finally the two guys came back, Bill holding the lantern, Ralph holding… something else. Ralph looked up at Edward and then lowered his eyes shamefacedly. "I'm afraid," he began, unsure of how to speak of such a subject, "I'm afraid that this isn't exactly what you wanted to see."

Ralph then lay his bundle down gently on the ground, and Edward leaned over the side of his tank to see it clearly. His stomach lurched. It was a boy, wearing all black, and had a horrible mess of blood covering his face. That wasn't Al. No, that wasn't him, that couldn't be him. The real Al would be breathing. Al was going to come back soon, right? Right? Right?

Edward looked frantically between the two guys and the body on the ground. Were they sure they had found the right person? How could there be many people with Al's exact description this far out west? It had to be Al, but no, it couldn't be! There had to be a logical explanation!

He looked back up at the two guys who had helped him, tears teasing at his eyes. "Is he… alive or…"

Ralph and Bill closed their eyes and sighed. Bill held up his hand. "I personally tested his vital signs. I rechecked them three times. I couldn't get a pulse no matter what I tried."

"NO!" Edward shook his head violently. "That's not true! Al is not dead, he's just somewhere else. You found an Al look alike. Al's alive! He's alive!"

Ralph put a hand on his shoulder and held it in a steady grip. "Son, I'm sorry, but your brother is gone."

"No, he's not!" Ed shook his head again, dripping tears into the water of his tank. "If he were gone, wouldn't I have felt it? I have powers you guys don't. Wouldn't I have felt it?"

Ralph sighed. "Not if you're all emotional like that."

Edward then placed his head and arms on the edge of the tank and cried.

As soon as Al tumbled out of his body, he knew that something strange was going on. It wasn't a windy night, so how could he have been hit that hard with a tree branch? It wasn't like he was sprinting back to the circus thing. He had barely been able to walk for all the crying.

And then there was this strange tug on his spirit that was trying to pull him out west somewhere. He didn't understand that at all. Out of all the stories he'd heard about the afterlife, none of them said anything about going west to get to your destination. This was bizarre, and he was going to fight it for as long as possible.

He watched as the strange looking men from the freak show came and gathered his body, and so he followed them as best he could, though the westward tugging made it very difficult to move. One false step and he would be flying off west to wherever it was he was going, but he had to at least see his brother before he found out what was going on with his spirit.

When he saw his brother, and how he reacted to seeing Al's dead body like that, all of his resolve melted and Al began to cry himself. He so wanted to reach out a comforting hand to his brother and tell him that he was okay, but he honestly didn't know whether he was okay. He didn't know where he was going, but he supposed he would know very soon.

There was no more fighting it, he had to go, whether he liked it or not. There's only so far one can stretch a rubber band before it snaps, and this felt like quite a large rubber band at that. He shouted goodbye to his brother just as the force whisked him away.

Winry gasped and sat straight up. She looked around nervously, not sure what she was supposed to be looking for, but she figured she should look at something.

Roy raised an eyebrow and held his head up with his fist propped up against his cheek. "Winry?" he ventured, "Is something the matter?"

"I don't know Col- er, Mr., er, Roy." She coughed, unused to the familiarity they were attempting to share now. Hopefully it didn't take long to get used to it. "I just---I Just had a feeling."

Roy sat up straight and looked the girl in the eye. "What kind of feeling?"

"I don't know," said Winry. "It's like---something's happened to one of the brothers."

"You're sure of this?"

Winry shook her head and then rolled her eyes. For being a Colonel, he could sure be pretty dumb at times. How could one be certain when it pertained to feelings? Feelings were something intangible, simple and complex at the same time, and yet integral to the human experience. It took a lot of work to unravel a feeling and understand it fully, and she didn't have the time to put her life on hold long enough to be certain of feelings.

Still, she ought to answer the Colonel in a polite way. "I'm not certain of anything. I just get these feelings. I can't tell anything else about them."

"Right," said Roy as he nodded, seeming to understand the situation at least. "Did you feel which of the brothers that---whatever---happened to?"

Winry had to shake her head again. "I only know the feelings. There's anger, bereavement, and confusion."

"So we know that someone's grieving then."

Winry nodded sadly. She hated to think about what either of the brothers would be grieving so strongly about. It had to be the other brother, but she hated thinking about that even more. Which brother was---taken? She didn't want to think about death, and definitely didn't want to use the word, but for emotions this strong, it had to be something like that. And she couldn't bear to think about either one of the brothers being the one that was gone. She so hoped she was wrong. She would give anything to just be wrong this once, though Fate had a way with toying with people, and this would probably be the one time she was absolutely right.

She stuck her thumbnail in her mouth and bit at it. The slightly violent action didn't solve the problem, but it relieved the anxiety a bit. Roy grabbed her hand and pulled it out of her mouth. "Winry, please don't mess up your nails. Your hands are too pretty to go around messing them up with worry."

Winry closed her eyes in the hope that the tears pricking her eyes would get the clue that they weren't wanted and leave. "But---But what if…?"

Roy shook his head. "It doesn't matter. We'll find out what happened when we find out. We're in this together, are we not?"

She nodded and a tear slipped out. Stupid tear. She had been trying to hold onto them. She needed to run her tear prison better so she had no more escapee tears.

Roy's facial expression softened, and he held his arms up at her. "Would it bother you if I gave you a hug? It's not a romantic thing or anything, you just look like you could use one right now."

Winry didn't bother to answer. The tears probably would have choked her if she'd tried anyway. But she lowered her head, and Roy seemed to take that as an invitation to go ahead, so he moved over to her seat and sat beside her, extending his arms around her and pulling her face into his shoulder.

"Go ahead, Winry, let it all out."

There's just something about a man pulling your face into his shoulder and telling you to let all your tears out that makes you do just that, and so despite her attempts to be tough and not show her emotions, Winry's tears soon committed a full fledged jailbreak.

Ralph walked up to the circus master. "This was beside the boy, boss." The master took the piece of wood from Ralph and inspected it, nodded a few times, and then turned back to face Edward.

"This branch was cleanly cut from a tree, and has some of your brother's blood on it. That means it was a deliberate act. Do you have anyone following you?"

Edward blanched at the question. Would they turn him in to the military if he answered that question truthfully? Then again, he didn't much care what happened to him anymore, so what would it matter if they did? He sighed and nodded.

"Who? Who is it boy, speak up!"

Edward looked downward, his fishy tail making its way into his view. He hated that thing. If he hadn't sprouted fins and scales, he'd never have run off, and Al wouldn't have come after him, and then he wouldn't have died. It wasn't fair. He should be the one to die, not Al. Merpeople don't belong on land anyway, so he should be a shriveled up mass somewhere.

"We were being chased by the military."

"Simply because you was water folks?" Ed nodded, and the circus master turned around and put a crazy look on his face as he said, "You know the government has gone all kookoo up here if theys chasing after mermaids and unicorns." That earned a snicker from most of the people standing around, except for Ed. He wasn't going to be jovial for a long time, if ever. First he lost someone who had been trying to save him, and now he lost his best friend in the world. Why was all this happening?

The circus master waved at everyone to calm down, and then he set the murder weapon down beside Al's body. Standing back up, he pointed to Al's body and said, "Burn him."

Edward screeched as he leaned forward. "What?! Why? Can't we give him a respectable burial?"

The circus master turned to face Edward and said, "Son, respectable burials leave a trail, and if you're trying to escape the Amestrian military, you don't want to leave a trail behind." He turned and looked at Al's body once more and then back to Ed. "Is there anything you want off of him to remember him by before everything gets burned?"

Edward blinked. This man was actually starting to sound nice, but there was no way he could be a nice man when he had kidnapped Ed and forced the brothers to work for him. Still, he would answer the question. "Um, I-I'd like that bracelet he always wore. And that necklace he's been wearing that he got from somewhere."

"The clamshell one?"

"Yeah, that one." The man looked for the requested items on Al and then handed them to Edward as soon as they were found, the strange clamshell necklace that Al seemed to be so protective of for some reason, and the bracelet that a friend had given him years ago. Al hadn't remembered who the friend was after a while, but he had liked the message. It was a simple chain bracelet with a single plate that read, "Together". He assumed the concept had given Al some comfort during all those trying years.

"Th-thank you," said Edward, though he almost hated to be saying it. Wasn't it somehow this man's fault that Al was dead? He sighed. Al would have died in the water if not here, and this freak show master had no way of knowing that someone was going to come after Al, though that meant that everyone in this show was in danger now.

It seemed that the freak show master realized that too. "Start the fire and pack up your bags. We're leaving under cover of night, and no arguments. The border is only two days away, and I'm sure as hell not going to let them stop me so close to home. Am I right?"

"Right!" the freaks shouted.

The master then dispatched everyone to do their individual tasks, and Edward sighed and rested his chin on the edge of the tank and thought aloud, "And where am I supposed to go?"

That caused the master to turn around and face Ed and put his hands on his hips as he shook his head and clicked his tongue. "Just what kind of people do you think we are? There's a reason none of the others have run away from this place even though they've had ample opportunity. We look out for each other, and we will not leave a comrade behind."

Edward shrugged. It didn't matter what he said to the guy now. The only person who could be hurt was him, and there wasn't much way to hurt him worse than he'd already been hurt. "I suppose you didn't kidnap all those others and force them to join you."

The master stepped forward. "Son, let me lay it to you straight. We've been waiting here for several weeks for you guys to show up. I knew you guys was running, and if you was running, then you probably wouldn't comply with a gentle invitation. You's in danger, kid. If you want to leave once we get across the border and into safe territory, fine, but my conscience won't leave a kid behind to become a victim, human or not."

The man then turned and walked away to perform whatever duties he had to perform. Edward stared on disbelievingly. Did that man mean he had actually been trying to _help_ them? How had he known of their plight, or did everyone know about it these days? He shook his head. He'd been out of the loop so long that there were probably a zillion things he didn't know, but he no longer cared.

Edward let go of the side of the tank and slowly sunk down to the bottom, cradling the last two remembrances he had of Al. His eyes itched. He was probably crying, but the tank water would make the tears not show. That was probably for the best. He hated to think he might end up going to sleep crying.

He gripped his possessions tightly, and then lay his head down and closed his eyes. He prayed that like Al, he would never wake up, and he drifted into a troubled sleep.

_**Believe it or not, this twist wasn't merely the result of a depressed mind, it's just that the depression finally made me able to write it. I've been planning this twist for I don't know how long but could never write it. I guess I'd better update soon before you guys all yell at me, huh? Don't make me MORE depressed, hehe. I'm kidding. Anyway, check back soon. I'll try to have it out in the near future, as in within the next few days. Thanks for reading, and come back soon!**_


	21. Chapter 21

_**Well, you wanted it, you got it. Here's the next installment of The Call of Atlantis. I have ideas for the next chapter as well, so I think that the next chapter will be out shortly. Yes, this chapter is a bit depressing too, but don't start thinking I've lost it, okay? I know some people read a little too deeply into people's stories, hehe.**_

_**Disclaimer: I am going to go and disclaim something, and once I'm finished disclaiming it, you may read the story...Wait...what was I disclaiming again? I think the last chapter had it, go back and read that one.  
**_

Edward refused to move, refused to talk, and refused to eat. He would just lie in the bottom of his tank all day, whether it was being transported or put in a place of rest for a time. Some of the men looking into his tank wondered whether he was dead. How could that kid get away with moving that little and still be alive?

The circus master knew otherwise. "No, he's just depressed. Not that I blame him, poor fella. You'd be able to tell if he was dead." He turned to look at one of his employees. "You ever seen one of these merfolks dead? They shrivel up on you, and they turn all gray. Not a speck of healthy color left on them."

Ralph's eyebrows went up slightly. "You've seen his kind around, boss?"

The circus master rolled his eyes. "The boy's trying to get to my country and you're asking me if I've seen them around. Of course I've seen them around. Just usually not alive and healthy like him. Their dead bodies get thrown up onto the beach all the time."

He then went and knocked on the side of Edward's tank. "Hey, kid, we're about to cross the border, so you just lay low and pretend to be a fish. We don't want no records of merfolks crossing the border. Amestris picks enough fights with its neighbors without this adding to it."

Edward covered his face with his hands. "What does it matter?"

The circus master shrugged. "Suit yourself. But try to be quiet." He then turned and walked back to his group and they packed up and got ready for transport.

Edward didn't pay much attention to what was going on around him. He knew that if the water in his tank was sloshing around, that he was being transported somewhere on a cart specially designed for that purpose. He sort of felt sorry for the people in charge of moving him. That much water had to be really heavy. He couldn't see their reactions though, because the boss had cleverly draped a cloth over the tank so that no one would see what was inside.

Aside from the occasional peek to see if he was alright, he saw nothing of the outside world, and he was lonely. He wanted Al to be here with him. He kept fingering the bracelet and the necklace over and over again. First Mom, then Al. And even the people who tried to help him kept dying, like Hughes and Sylvia. Why was everyone around him always dying? And why was he the last one left? Why couldn't he have been the first to go instead of the last?

Eventually, the cart stopped moving, and the cloth was removed from the tank so that he could see out of it. "Well, son, you successfully made it beyond the border. Congratulations." The circus master sounded like he wasn't particularly jovial about his managing to cross the border. Ed didn't know why. Perhaps he just didn't want to lose such an interesting freak as himself.

"Now I want you to tell me what you want to do, kid. Do you want to stay with us for a while, or do you want to be dropped off in the nearest river?"

Ed wrapped his arms around his tail as though they were still legs and propped his chin on it. "I don't know anymore."

"Didn't you have an ambition of getting to the ocean or something?"

Ed shrugged. "That was when Al was still alive."

"You're surely not going to just abort the mission because of that?"

Ed hung his head. "It feels as though all the color has been drained out of my life. I have nothing to live for anymore."

The circus master stroked his beard and thought. "I don't think we ought to leave you alone quite yet if you's talking like that. We'll keep you for a few more days and see how you's feeling then." Ed just shrugged again. Nothing could make him care about anything anymore. He wanted to be with Al, and if Al was dead, he wanted to be dead as well, though he wasn't sure if humans and merpeople had the same kind of afterlife experience. Maybe Al would come back as a ghost, as Sylvia had. Maybe that was the only way to be with Al from now on.

Edward blinked his eyes repeatedly to try and stop the pesky tears that were making his eyes itch, but they wouldn't stop. He was in water, so no one would notice the extra salt water, but tears have a way of getting control of your whole body, and before long, Edward was bawling.

Winry was crying and didn't quite know why, but she hadn't understood any of these strange emotions since this whole ordeal with the brothers came up. Roy patted her on the shoulder and said that it was okay to cry and to stay strong, but she didn't feel strong right then. She felt helpless. The boys were out there somewhere and she couldn't do anything for them.

She stood on the platform as Roy brought up their baggage and set it down beside her. They were in Sansefeld. That was as far as this train went. It wasn't far from the border, but they would have to secure some other kind of transportation from here on out, and then there would be the process of actually getting across the border without letting the military get their noses into it, and…

"Here's your passport," said Roy, and he handed a leather bound wallet to her. Well, it looked like a wallet in her opinion. She had never actually seen a passport firsthand. Nobody traveled east or came from the east past Reisenburgh. Too much desert area.

She opened it up and was surprised to find her picture in there, alongside a description of who she was. The name was wrong. How could Roy of all people get her name wrong?

"Why is my name listed as Angelica Larkins?"

"It's a little bit safer than crossing the border as Winry Rockbell, don't you think?"

Of course, that made sense. Why hadn't she thought of that? Maybe it was a good thing that Roy had made this trip with her, otherwise she would have been caught as soon as she had tried to cross the border, if she even made it to the border, that is.

"Um, one more question, Roy, sir, why does it say I'm married?"

Roy chuckled. Winry wasn't sure if she liked that chuckle or not. "Because a traveling couple looks a lot more believable and a lot less like Winry Rockbell than a single girl trying to cross the border alone."

"Huh, okay." She turned to look back at her passport. Her first form of identification and it has to be a false ID. How strange. Her life was just one big mess of strangeness.

"So who's my husband supposed to---" She looked up at Roy's smirking face and snapped the passport shut. Of course, who else would it be? "I get it. You're the mysterious Mr. Larkins, aren't you?"

"Justin Larkins at that."

Winry snorted. "Doesn't sound as interesting as my new name."

"Hey, I've got a good friend by the name of Justin!"

Winry stuck her tongue out at Roy and then grabbed her bag and started walking off the platform. "I should warn you, I brought my trusty wrench with me, and I'm equipped with full knowledge of how to use it, so no funny business." She saw Roy wince, and she chuckled to herself as she tried to figure out just which form of punishment he'd imagined her inflicting upon him.

Roy grabbed his bag as well and the two walked together until they were able to find someone with a horse and carriage to take them to the border. According to Roy, going by way of horse was less suspicious than going by way of car. One needed a lot of money to rent a car, and there weren't many of them this far west. Anyone renting a car would be noticed for sure.

They loaded up into the carriage and rode the bumpy ride to the border. Winry was so nervous that she remained completely silent for the whole trip. Roy simply dismissed her as "shy" to the driver and kept up the conversation himself. How could he act so comfortable in a situation where you were lying about who you were? What if something were to happen? What if they got found out?

She soon realized that in matters of this sort, she should just shut up and trust Roy, because the border patrol didn't even remotely suspect anything of them, not even with Winry's "shyness". Roy was such a good talker that he could convince anyone of anything. No wonder he had advanced so many ranks while still so young. He had talent. Scary, but helpful, talent.

Finally on the other side at a safe distance from the border to drop her guard, she put down her bag, threw out her arms, and said, "Now what?"

Roy scratched his head. "Well, I hadn't thought that far ahead."

Winry growled and shook her hands, then grabbed her bag and started marching off angrily in a random direction. Men. Why do their brains shut off at the times you need them the most?

Edward had paid close attention to his feelings whenever he would start to get dehydrated, even back when he was sick in bed in Reisenburgh. He came to the conclusion that if the sky was clear, and the sun was high in the sky, and warm enough to give someone a sunburn, then about five hours of lying in those conditions would likely kill him. Though Al would kill him faster if he was here and knew his older brother had been thinking such thoughts.

What was the point though, honestly? Why should he continue trying to live when everyone he cared about was gone? He had never planned to live the rest of his life alone. So why was he suddenly expected to now? There seemed to be no reason to persist through the pain.

He waited and watched and waited again, trying to determine everyone else's movements. They had changed their behaviors a little bit since crossing the border, so he had to relearn, but it wasn't all that difficult to decipher a pattern. They always retreated around noon. He supposed it was because of how intense the sun got around here in the middle of the day. It never hurt him since he was in a tank full of water, but the sunlight really flooded through the tank during that part of the day and made the water almost appear colorless when otherwise it looked blue. If he was going to do it, then that was the time to do so.

As soon as noon was near and the other staff retreated for the day, Edward launched himself up to the top of the tank and threw himself over the side so that he came crashing down into the dirt. That hadn't felt very good, but he wasn't striving to end his physical pain. If he could deal with having auto-mail for years, he could deal with a little physical pain now.

Mental and emotional pain though, he had no idea how to deal with that, or if it was even possible. It hurt too much to think about it. Being awake was a constant nightmare, and he couldn't find any escape in his sleep because the visions of Al kept him awake. Even if he did eventually get to sleep, he would still relive that night over and over in his dreams. He just wanted the pain to end. He needed it to, and he couldn't think of any other way to deal with it than…

"Hey, what are you doing out of your tank?" The circus manager came waltzing up to the area where Ed was trying to dehydrate himself to death and grabbed one of Ed's arms when Ed tried to cover his face and block the view of the man. Ed refused to respond though, even if the man wouldn't let go of his arm.

"Staying out of the water for too long is dangerous for you folks." He gave a shake to Ed's arm, probably to see if Ed was paying attention. "You know that don't you?"

Ed shrugged, and this angered the man so that he stomped and spat. "Son, you's not killing yourself while you's in our group, you hear? I'm sorry that your brother is gone, but you's got to go on living. Your brother would want that."

Edward seethed internally. How would that man know what Al would want? He had barely known Al and had pissed him off enough to make him leave the circus long enough to get killed. He knew that everyone else would say that Al would want him to keep living, but they were all _alive_. How would they know what a dead person thinks about another person becoming dead and reuniting with them?

It seemed the man grew tired of waiting for Edward to respond, because he bent down, threw Ed up onto his shoulder, and then plopped him back in his tank. The man started walking away, but he turned around and pointed at Edward as he said, "We're gonna be watching you a lot closer from now on, you hear? Don't you try any funny business. I'll send someone out to keep an eye on you in a few minutes."

Now Edward was furious. It was his body, his life, he should have the right to choose whether to live or to die. And yet they were trying to force him into a role he couldn't fit into, one of just giving up on everything he had ever cared about and somehow finding a life in the emptiness that was left.

Why did it matter to them whether he lived or died, anyway? Was it just because he was a valuable little freak in the guy's freak show that would bring in lots of profit? The guy could just kill him, dry him out, and pin him to a board and get everyone to pay to view him that way. That would attract about as much money as the living thing. He'd seen a lot of hoaxes structured that way in Amestris that raked in so much cash.

He closed his eyes and took a couple deep breaths to try and calm down. Getting worked up over this wasn't going to get him through it. He used to always sing a little tune that would calm him down. He thought he could remember Al noticing him singing it back before that fateful birthday when everything changed. It was worth an attempt at feeling better at least, so he hummed a few bars of the song.

Then he noticed something strange. The clamshell necklace he'd taken from Al had started vibrating, and some sort of switch went off in his brain that told him why. He wasn't sure if the necklace had somehow given him the knowledge, if Al had told him and he'd forgotten, or if it was just a mer thing, but he definitely knew what had trigged the reaction and what the reaction meant.

Edward's eyes widened with wonder as he cradled the necklace in his hands. "Someone else with mer blood is nearby..." He felt a little self conscious talking to himself, and he quickly glanced around to see if anybody was watching, but he shrugged and decided it wasn't important if they thought he was crazy. They probably already did think he was and were busy discussing how to deal with his insanity.

"Is it Al, or… no, it can't be Al, can it? I saw Al's body back there, unless he somehow came back from the dead." Ed shivered at that thought. As much as he loved Al, he really didn't want to see his little brother as a zombie, even if he liked zombies otherwise. They gave one a good excuse to make brain jokes.

"But if it's not Al, then who could it be?" He swam up to the top of his tank, grabbed a hold of the side and scanned the surrounding area, but couldn't see a trace of anybody who could possibly be mer. He sank down to the bottom again and picked up the little clamshell necklace. Its vibration was slowing down. Probably because he had stopped singing, not like continuing to sing would make the necklace tell him anything else. It could only give a rough representation of where the person was, not their exact location. Somehow he knew this, even though he had never been instructed in mer technology.

Looking up once again, he saw a faint silhouette off in the distance that seemed to be coming toward the circus, then stopping and standing for a while, and then turning and going a different direction. How he wished he'd had legs right then so he could run and catch that person and ask them lots of questions. That mysterious silhouette was probably exactly the person the necklace was trying to inform him of. There had to be a way to get them to come here.

_**Like I said, peeps, don't assume that I've lost it just because I'm doing a little catharsis in this story. I'm taking meds, I'm not going to kill myself, so relax. Those of you who weren't concerned with that, just go on being blissfully ignorant as before, hehe.**_

_**Anyway, the next chapter should be up soon, and it'll probably start being a little less angsty from there. We shall see. Thanks for reading, and come back soon!  
**_


	22. Chapter 22

_**Hey, everybody, here's the next chapter. I'm a little worried about the characterization and the speed of the revelations, so those who are inclined to comment on that are more than welcome to do so. I could use a little feedback. The rest of you, I hope you enjoy the story!**_

_**Disclaimer: Well, I got the word "disclaimer" down, but I honestly hadn't thought past that. I'm getting about as bad as Roy, and he doesn't own Fullmetal Alchemist either... and I think I heard a moan and a "Leave me out of this!" in the background. Goodness knows who said that.  
**_

_Every dream has to die sooner or later. That includes nightmares, because nightmares are dreams, aren't they?_

Edward rolled his eyes up as he tried to remember where he had heard that quote. It sounded like something Al would have said. Something to try and comfort someone. Oh, that was what it was. After Winry had lost her parents, Al had said that to her to try and calm her down. Edward wasn't sure if it had worked or not, since Winry pretty much cried and yelled the rest of the week. He couldn't blame her, but the quote was nice.

_Think positively. That's the only way to get what you want. Otherwise, how will you know when you've received your wish if you never think about it?_

That Al, always the optimist. How had he managed to stay so cheerful through all the hell they went through? Granted, he wasn't cheerful on… "that" night… but most days he seemed to have been in good spirits. If only he could be more like Al, then maybe this whole ordeal wouldn't hurt so much. Al always seemed to find some way to cope with his problems. Why was the younger brother so much stronger than the older brother?

_You're not weak. You're far from weak. We get our strength from each other. If you were weak, there would be no way I could be strong. If I'm strong, that must mean you are too._

"Darnit, Al, get out of my head!" Of all the times in his life when swearing would be considered most appropriate, this was it, and yet he chose not to swear. If it was acceptable to the mainstream culture, then he wanted no part of it. Or that was his excuse for now, anyway. Al probably would have just used the curse word. He did when things got bad enough. And here Edward was refusing to curse. What was wrong with him, anyway?

Edward swam over to the side of his tank and grabbed hold of the glass. "Darn this pain…" He smacked his head against the glass as hard as he could manage. That had really hurt, but not enough. "Make it…" Smack. "Go…" Smack. "Away!" Smack. And then he let go and sunk back to the bottom of the tank, still in quite a bit of emotional pain and starting on a bit of delirium as it jumbled up his thoughts and didn't let anything make sense. Oh well, things were probably better that way, so he closed his eyes and went to sleep.

* * *

"Where are we going, Winry?" asked Roy, trailing behind her and somehow carrying all the baggage. Winry was a strangely evil woman to be around.

"Somewhere."

"Where's somewhere?"

"Anywhere but where we're standing."

"But how will we know if we're going the right way? We've got to at least think through a plan of some sort."

Winry stopped walking, put her hands on her hips, and turned around to face the man who was whining like a baby. She'd never seen Roy so insecure, nor had she imagined he could be. He never had been in front of Ed from the stories Ed told. Did he just expose his weaker side to women? That wasn't very smart if that was so, since the guy would get trampled to death sooner or later by a mob of high-heeled shoes.

"Look, unless you have a better idea, the only clues we have are the feelings I keep getting and your DNA findings, so unless you can somehow dismiss my feelings and follow up with logic, I'd say we'd better follow my feelings."

Roy sniffed. Winry was right, but who wanted to admit that a woman was right when it made the man wrong? Especially an older man at that. "Alright then, where are your feelings directing you then?"

Winry frowned in concentration for a few minutes, just trying to focus on how the brothers felt, as if she could feel their spirit or something. She wasn't getting much, and she wasn't even sure if what she did get was right, but they had no better clues. "Well, obviously we need to keep going west, but… I think we're too far south."

"Too far south?"

Winry looked up at the man. "Yes, too far south. We need to go north to find them. Or one of them. Whichever brother is still…"

"I understand," said Roy, and he patted Winry on the shoulder. "You've been working hard at this, so don't pain yourself further by forcing yourself to talk about it."

She buried her forehead in her hand. "Th-thanks."

"It might help to get some idea of what's north of here though. Maybe we should ask some of the natives."

"Maybe."

It wasn't long before Winry and Roy had approached a middle-aged lady and asked her about what was up north. It turned out that the lady barely spoke Amestrian, and they had to ask the question several times to get through to her. But once she understood the question, she seemed quite opinionated about the answer.

"Has crazy show. 'Tupid!"

Winry didn't know what a crazy show was, and she sure hoped the woman was referring to that as stupid rather than her and Roy, though a couple of foreigners probably looked rather stupid to natives, so perhaps it was fair either way.

She decided to ask for clarification. "So, what's a crazy show?"

"'Tupid!"

"Yeah, but what is it?"

"'Tupid!"

With a sigh and a shrug, Winry resigned herself to her fate as she realized that this woman just wouldn't understand her no matter what she said. If only she'd studied some other languages while growing up, but it wouldn't do any good to belittle herself about that now.

Roy, noticing her reaction, placed a hand on her shoulder and said, "Let's see if I can get through to her." He then proceeded to speak in another language with the woman. Even though Winry didn't speak the language herself, she could tell that Roy wasn't fluent in it, but then, neither was the woman. How did they both know a language that wasn't their mother tongue?

He turned back to her. "It seems she's talking about some freak show that comes through every year about this time, and she thinks it's quite stupid."

"I'd gathered."

"She said that most of the freaks have somehow become alchemy damaged. That must mean the owner passes through Amestris or Xing, though even if it were Xing he was going to, he would have to go through Amestris to get there."

"Which means he just came out of Amestris?" Winry guessed.

"That was what I was thinking," said Roy. "That travelers' language is very minimalist, so she couldn't figure out how to describe anything else."

Travelers' language, of course! No wonder they both knew that language. The lady lived near the border and ran into a lot of foreign people because of it, and Roy was in the military, so it made sense that they would both speak a travelers' language, even though neither one of them was proficient at it, as much as Roy wanted to place the blame on the language itself.

"Okay," Winry scratched her head and thought. "I don't know why Ed or Al would be traveling with a freak show, but we can't rule out the possibility since we don't know what's been going on with them."

"Right," said Roy, "So north then?"

He felt Winry smack him lightly as she said, "Northwest, silly. They're still moving, aren't they?"

"Oh, right." He bowed his head to rub at the bridge of his nose. He said he had an itch, but Winry doubted it. Most likely his masculine ego got bruised, especially with him being a Colonel and her not knowing anything about the military. Oh well, he'd come around soon enough.

They grabbed another horse and carriage and rode northwest, the drivers getting frustrated but being surprisingly patient with Winry's impulses. Maybe they just liked the idea of getting paid in Amestrian money. It was worth a lot more than the Creatan dollar.

After about a day and a half of traveling, the drivers switching off who held the reigns every few hours to get them to their destination as fast as possible, Winry cracked her eyes open and blinked them a few times to get used to the dawn light streaming in. She sat up in her seat and stretched her arms. It would be so nice to get off of this thing. Her back hurt, her rump was sore, and her legs felt dead. It was seriously easier to travel from place to place by walking, but it took too long and time was of the essence here.

She finally looked up into the distance and was met with the sight of a parade of bright colors. At first she thought it was just the dawn light reflecting off of some rocks in a weird way, but as she took another look at it, she realized that those were the bright colors of a circus. They had found it!

"I see it! I see it!" Winry frantically shook Roy's arm until he opened his eyes, moaned, and sat up and looked in the direction Winry was pointing.

"What do you see?" He yawned, and his eyes started closing again when Winry slapped him over the head.

"Dummy, wake up and look where I'm pointing!"

This time he did as he was told, and he looked where Winry was pointing. His eyes opened a little bit at the sight, hardly daring to believe that Winry could have been right all this time. "That's the freak show… circus thingy?"

"It has to be. It's right where I felt it was, so what else could it be?"

"Hmmm…" Roy rubbed his chin to contemplate that one. "Somebody could've set up a fake circus."

Winry snorted. "Who would go to the trouble to set up a fake circus?"

"I don't know," Roy said with a shrug, "Sounds like something Ed would do."

A chuckle from Winry. "Something that _only_ he would do."

By midmorning, they arrived at the circus grounds, paid the drivers, and then went to search for the manager. Neither of the two was focused on the other at the moment, and so without realizing it, Roy had gone one way and Winry had gone another. Though it probably didn't matter since it was just a circus.

Winry walked around the side of a building and found the area where the tents formed a circle. This must've been the middle of the site. There was a large tank of water in the middle area too, and she felt her stomach lurch as something compelled her to go forward. There was something about that tank…

* * *

Edward sat up in his tank and shielded his brow with his hand as he watched a strange form fly over his tank and land somewhere beyond the main tent. Was that a seagull? He had never actually seen one before since he had always lived too far inland. He'd never even been to the ocean. Wasn't this seagull, if that was what it was, pretty far inland? What was it doing here, of all places?

He shrugged and sank back into his tank. It was just a bird. It probably didn't mean anything.

* * *

Winry looked up just as a seagull swooped down, dropped something in her hand, and then landed on a nearby chair and squawked at her. She looked confusedly between the thing in her hand and the bird for several moments, the seagull continuously squawking at her, before she realized that the thing she was holding in her hand was rolled up, and was probably meant to be unrolled.

It was whitish and had a rubbery texture, something that confused her greatly but seemed to be an amazing sort of technology. As she unrolled it, she began to make out words written on it, and a few drops of water fell out. What was this, some kind of waterproof paper?

She read the letter:

"Dear Winry, I hope you get this letter before you run into Edward. He's had quite a shock and will need your help to calm down or I fear he may kill himself. I have been keeping up with his behavior mainly through scrying, which is how I know about you also. I sort of just look into a bubble and things appear.

"Please tell Edward that Al is alright. He just had a really hard fall, as I did recently when the same thing happened to me. It took me a while to regain my memory of everything. Al is still confused, but he will recover. I'm not really supposed to tell you this, but we have the technology to safely lock away someone's body and then project the person's spirit away to a fake body. If anything happens to the fake body, they fall back into the real one.

"We'd pulled Al's body out of the Gate years ago and gave him a fake one to live in while he chose to remain on land. That body got destroyed, so now he is back in his own. Edward doesn't have a fake body to protect him while on land, so he is in real trouble if anything should happen to him. You're the only one I know of who could possibly help him calm down enough to be delivered safely to the ocean. We'll pick him up from there.

"And Winry, a tip for yourself: be careful when you get to the ocean. The call of Atlantis is exceedingly strong right now, and even you might feel its pull, but heeding the call would cause you to drown. Don't take this warning lightly. Perhaps that blue-suited man, Roy I think his name was, could help watch you and make sure you don't do anything dangerous.

"If Edward wants to contact us, he needs to either learn how to use his magic or charm a seagull. It doesn't take much, but he's having a hard time letting go of previous misconceptions about his existence.

"Thank you for reading this, Winry, and for being such a devoted friend to Edward. I hope we can become friends too when we meet at the ocean. Wishing you happy thoughts,

"Sylvia"

Winry read the letter several times over, not quite sure what to make of it. Somehow the writer had known exactly where she was, as well as her connection with Edward, and his connection with the ocean. And the writer had mentioned Atlantis. Was this some sort of practical joke? Did Atlantis really exist?

"What is it, Winry?" asked Roy.

Winry looked up from the letter and shrugged, and then she giggled self-consciously. "It's a letter, addressed to me and somehow delivered by seagull." She shook her head. That had sounded so stupid. All the statements were true, but it sounded ridiculous. How could she possibly believe what was written in the letter?

The circus master, who they'd been engaged in a discussion with before the mysterious appearance of the seagull, raised his eyebrow. "They knew exactly where you were."

Another self-conscious chuckle from Winry. "Yeah. It seems so. I know, it sounds ridiculous. It's probably just a prank, right?"

"Not if it was written by one of them merfolks."

"Merpeople again," more nervous chuckling, "You don't honestly believe in merpeople, do you?"

The circus master pointed over his shoulder with his thumb. "Got one over there in a tank. Poor little fella and his brother were trying to get to the ocean. Then the brother croaked and now he's trying to get there all alone. Well, half trying. He's kind of given up on life." The circus master shook his head and then repeated, "Poor little fella."

That same strange feeling she'd felt when she saw the tank in the distance came flooding back to her, and she stood paralyzed, crushing the rubbery paper in her hands, eyes wide open, and scared to death. If she asked to see the merman in the tank, would she regret it? The clues all tried to persuade her that Edward was one, and that Al had tendencies in that direction, but she couldn't bring herself to accept it, and she didn't know why. Something about the whole thing scared her in a way she couldn't understand.

She came back to reality when she noticed Roy waving his hand in front of her face and going, "Winry. Winry?"

She blinked and shook her head. "Okay, sorry. I'm back."

"Good," said Roy, and then pointed his thumb over his shoulder. "The circus master was going to let us take a look at the fishboy." He extended his hand, expecting her to take it, but she didn't want to. It made no sense to her, but she didn't want to. If she'd been told she was going to be allowed to see a unicorn, she'd have willingly agreed no matter how skeptical she was. But something about this was just…off. And terrifying.

Roy got tired of waiting and grabbed Winry's hand and led her into the central area of the circus where the tank was. She saw a form in the bottom of the tank, and she felt like she was going to throw up. She did not want to be here. She needed to be anywhere else but here.

With that in mind, she pulled her hand out of Roy's and turned to run the other direction, but Roy's reflexes were faster than hers, and he caught her and turned her back toward the central area. Without waiting for him to even ask her what the matter was, she started sobbing, and tears followed in their course to water her face like it was a plant.

"Winry, what is going _on_?" asked a very concerned Roy. "I knew you were skeptical, but I never knew you were terrified. You were so strong about the situation up until now. Tell me, what's going on?"

"I don't know!" She shook her head and brought up an arm to wipe away some of the tears. "If I knew, I wouldn't be crying like this."

Roy patted her shoulder and then stayed silent. Perhaps he was trying to find words to say, but what does one say in regards to something like that? She could understand why he was staying silent. She wouldn't want to talk to herself right then either.

She was interrupted in her reverie, however, by a familiar sounding, "Holy shit!"

At this, she finally looked up at the tank. How can one resist when they hear something like that, especially in a familiar-sounding voice?

Her tears still made her vision blurry, but she could see that the lump on the bottom of the tank had moved and was now peering over the top at them. She blinked a couple times until her vision began to clear. When she finally made out the form of Edward perched there on the edge of his tank, she lost all control of her body and fainted.

_**Anyway, hope you liked that. Thanks for reading, and come back soon. I'll try to update again in the near future. Take care, and have a nice day!**_


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